Just One Last Time
by Forscythe
Summary: When a genius hacker manages to get into SAO from overseas, he now joins the group of 10,000 in the death game. This is one MMO he probably should have stayed away from. Ch. 13 is up.
1. Chapter 1

Yeah I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I promise that the ToS fanfiction will update soon, the next chapter's like 90% done in my head and like 50% done on paper. Anyways, on to the story premise. I'm sure a good portion of mmo fans that play korean mmos or any other foreign mmos know about the people who get into the games before they come over to America by faking ips and proxying and such. I haven't done this myself, but I wondered, what if an American imported a nerve gear and managed to get into Sword Art Online even though he's not supposed to? Let me be clear from the start, the OC isn't going to change anything major in Aincrad. Kirito's story will go as normal. This is just a side story, like a lot of the stories I've seen pop up in this archive.

I don't speak Japanese or write it. So I can't possibly own Sword Art Online.

* * *

Chapter I: 10001 Players

* * *

I sighed in satisfaction, my messy dark red hair and green eyes staring back at me from their reflection in the Nerve Gear's shiny surface.

"About time," I grumbled to no one in particular, "I didn't think it was going to make it in time for the opening. Good thing I've already got my cracked copy of _Sword Art Online_ off the internet from a beta tester already set up and ready to go. I wonder if any other Americans are going to find their way in, I haven't of anybody really cracking their way into SAO yet; that Kayaba Akihiko has to be some sort of genius programmer."

"Well no matter," I saw my own massive grin shining in the surface of the Nerve Gear, "I've been working on the crack for weeks now, and I think I've got it down pat from the last couple tests I did."

I took the strange white helmet and placed it on my head.

"Now... what was it I needed to say... was it link start?"

Immediately a flood of bright light engulfed my vision followed by hundreds of multi color cylinders that flew past my ideas. The machine then went through a series of checks for the five senses before coming up with a language option.

"I wonder what English does..." I scrolled through, surprised that there were other selections besides Japanese. "I'll just pick Japanese I guess. Being home schooled and learning Japanese since second grade does have its perks."

The rest of the data automatically filled in based on the account I'd already created on SAO's website. Then, a virtual 3-D version of me appeared on-screen.

"Ah okay," I scrolled through some of the options, "This has gotta be the character creation screen. Well, I'm feeling sorta lazy, and I don't actually live in Japan, so I'll just go with how I look in real life and create a name."

I picked a basic green version of the default outfit, tapped the button that said 'Finalize Appearance', and waited patiently until a text box asking me to choose my name/roll my stats

"Let's see here..." I mumbled to myself, "Might as well choose a classic of mine. Aurain or Pentathiel? I guess Aurain is good. Looks like my stats are just about where I want them as well. High agility, decent dexterity and strength, and the rest of the stats at their base levels. I can always raise vitality and luck later."

I typed in the name on the keypad and tapped 'Okay' on the user interface. A bright blue light surrounded me before a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds filled my vision. I blinked. Wait a second... this looks like real life! I guess the online screen shots weren't fake after all. I brought up my hands to my face and slapped either side.

"Oh man this is so cool," I felt giddy, taking in the sites of the town surrounding me. There were many building made of bricks, connected by a labyrinth of cobblestone pathways.

I couldn't believe how BIG the first town was. Seriously, in all my experience with MMOs the first towns were kind of tiny, and even the later towns weren't as massive as this one. Supposedly there were one hundred floors, most of which I assumed had towns somewhat similar to this.

"Alright!" I clapped my hand together, grinning like a maniac, "First things first I need to find a weapon shop and get that taken care of. Then maybe I'll find some quests to do. Grinding is gonna be pretty dull without at least some sort of goal."

A quick search through the menu showed me a map of the town, the ones connected to it, but nothing else. That was quite odd. My first guess was that I either had to buy maps or that there was literally no map of anything besides the cities and the paths to each one. The rest of the map must come from walking around on your own. At least I had a map of the town and a list of quests around my level though. That was a good start.

I picked up as many quests as I could and headed to the closest weapon shop. The one I decided on was just outside of town. I picked up a basic sword out of habit in MMOs and went to spend the rest of the money on hp potions. My first rule of MMOs was to always have plenty of healing items as well as an escape route, but unfortunately the teleport crystals were stupid expensive for a new player. Experience loss due to dieing is never a fun prospect.

Right as I was about to leave the general store NPC, something caught my eye.

"What's the dark red crystal sitting in the back there?"

"Oh." the NPC's eyes practically turned into dollar signs, "That's a full heal crystal! Guaranteed to fully heal you no matter how much health you have! It's only set you back 10,000 Col!"

"Only 10,000!?" I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped to the floor, "I'll be sticking to potions for now thank you."

Hopefully the Torchlight inspired potions that heal over time will be enough. I sorta like them in those games because you can drink one and it continues to work until the time runs out, even when you reach full hp. I'll probably be abusing that feature as much as possible.

By this time I felt ready to venture out into the fields surrounding the 'Town of Beginnings'

"I guess I should probably check to see what kind of skills are available," I opened up the user interface once again and scrolled over to the skill window, "Even if this game has no magic, attack skills still must exist in some form."

The skill menu opened up with a nice little chime. There was one white box empty, with eleven grayed out boxes all in a row at the bottom of my vision. Above the row of boxes was a list of skill names, with a little movie showing it in action every time I clicked on a new one.

I scrolled through the entire list seeing things like hiding, search, and sprint. Obviously since I only had one slot, an attack skill was probably the first thing I wanted to grab. Since I'd opted to grab a sword from the start, I scrolled down to that category to see what I qualified for. There was a single skill that went into my skill slot. Underneath it in grayed out letters were the skills I'd eventually learn from mastering that particular skill. That was interesting. Just as I was about to close out the window and head out to kill twenty boars for that woman in the east side of town, I noticed a skill down at the bottom that was all glitched out. I clicked on it, and the description and name was all in gibberish.

"Huh..." I muttered to myself, "Must be some sort of error on the part of the programmers. Well if they have a decent staff; they'll probably have it fixed in a day or two. No matter. Time to go hunt some boars!"

I pulled up my map and pulled it to the side of the screen so I could use it to navigate as I walked. After a few minutes of wandering the cobblestone maze of the first city (I was used to MMOs with small linear towns, give me a break), I walked across the bridge into the beautiful green fields that filled floor one.

"Let's see here..." I was mumbling as usual. I like planning out loud, "One woman wants me to kill twenty boars to help protect the area, and that one general store owner wants me to gather him some herbs. I guess I'll get going killing the boars. It wouldn't surprise me if they dropped the herbs.

"Alright boar," I got into a shaky combat stance, "Let's see what you've got."

I took out my sword. Maybe if I though the skill's name it would activate? I thought 'Rending Slash' and immediately my sword began to glow with a dark green light. I felt an impulse to run forward, and followed it. To my surprise I executed a brutal slash straight through the boar's side that turned into a bunch of crystals. The crystals burst and a screen showing experience, Col, and a list of items I gained. Not to my surprise, one of the items was one of the five herbs I needed.

"Wow that was cool!" I jumped around in joy, "I never realized VRMMOs could be so damn awesome!"

This pattern generally continued for a while. The monsters were only spawning here and there since a lot of the players were still messing around in the new town, so I didn't have to worry about multi-aggro activating and getting hit by a swarm of boars. One at a time they were a piece of cake, and I reached level two in no time at all.

It all ceased when I began to hear cries of terror coming from the town. At first I wondered if it was some sort of event, and I raced to the tallest hill I could find overlooking the town. To my surprise, what looked like the entire population of the game was crammed into the town's center area. I could see a disproportionate amount of girls in the crowd, and I couldn't help but wonder how many of them were actually girls in real life. Suddenly a blood red overlay covered the sky, with the words 'System Announcement' and 'Warning' repeated across it.

"Well that's creepy," I sat down to watch the so-called system announcement, "How come I didn't get the memo to meet in the town center for this supposed announcement? Wonder if it has anything to do with me hacking into the game?"

It got even creepier as blood began to drip from the red overlay near the town. That was when I heard a noise behind me. I turned to look, and I saw a man who looked like a blood-red grim reaper approaching me from behind.

"Hello my dear boy," a deep voice sounded from beneath the hood, "What exactly are you doing in my game? There aren't supposed to be 10001 players."

"Who are you supposed to be, and why are you here!?" I dropped into the same combat stance from earlier

"Me?" the grim reaper laughed, "I guess I can introduce myself. I am Kayaba Akihiko. I'm sure you know me as the creator of this game. Really I'm only here for two reason. My own curiosity and to tell you the rules of this game since you aren't at my gathering I forced all the players to attend."

"Your own curiosity?" I slackened and sheathed my small-sword, "About what?"

"I was curious about what kind of boy who could get past my security measures and make his way into my game. You'll soon find yourself regretting forcing yourself into SAO."

"Regretting?" I felt the pit of my stomach drop."

"Oh don't worry." Kayaba paced in front of me, "I won't be pursuing any sort of law suit against you. In a way I'm happy to have extra people here to experience SAO. The main thing you might end up regretting is that when you die in SAO you die in real life."

"What." the pit of my stomach vanished completely, "You can't be serious."

"Oh I am quite serious..." Kayaba took a quick look at my character name. "Aurain. When you die that sends a signal to the Nerve Gear to fry your brain.

"Well then I'll just log out!" I pulled up the user interface and scrolled down, only to find that no such button existed.

"You can't." Kayaba responded to my efforts. "No one will be able to log out until the 100th floor is cleared, and if anyone tries to forcefully log you out the Nerve Gear will also fry your brain. I've made all the world new organizations and governments aware of this."

"You.." I was practically shaking at this point.

"Call me what you will," Kayaba shrugged, "But considering that I came to tell you all this personally, you should be grateful. Enjoy my gifts to you."

I opened my inventory. Inside there was a book titled in gibberish, a weapon in the same gibberish, and one final item titled 'mirror'. I took out the one item I could actually read and held it in front of my face.

"Is this supposed to do something?"

To my great surprise, Kayaba let out a booming laugh, "Oh you ARE interesting. You kept your real world appearance as your avatar. To answer your question, the mirror reverts your avatar to looking like you in real life. This wasn't necessary because you already look like yourself."

"Is this some sort of sick social experiment to you?" I drew my sword again and pointed it at the reaper look-a-like, "Making death real and everyone look like themselves in real life!?"

"That's for you to find out on the 100th floor Mr. Aurain." and with that Kayaba suddenly vanished.

"Great," I sighed, "Looks like Karma finally bit me in the ass for worming my way into so many overseas mmos over the years. Glad I bought all those hp potions."

* * *

Lemme do some end of the chapter Sword Art Online system explanations. Everything in SAO is based on the skills. When Kirito blocks in the show, he's using some subset skill from the skill "Parry" When he's slashing, he's using some basic slash skill from the "One-Handed Sword" skill subset. You can't attack without using a skill. If you do you're basically flailing around. It's why Klein gets his ass handed to him.

-Forscythe


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to the anonymous that reviewed. I believe his name was Flying Daggers. Anyways on to chapter two.

Disclaimer: I don't think I own Sword Art Online. Otherwise I'd be rolling in cash from all the anime moneys.

Chapter II: The Long Grind

* * *

I wiped my brow as a level ten Ratman burst into tiny crystals. It's been about two and a half months since Sword Art Online's death game began. As I sort of expected, more than half of the players were too afraid of death to even leave the first town. I couldn't really blame them though. Why leave safety? Let other people finish the game for you. It almost seemed like Kayaba expected that to be honest. The beginning city was massive, and held the 5000 or so people with absolutely no problem at all. Another group, of about 4000 or so formed a massive alliance, that eventually gave rise to a guild, The Army. I guess they hoped strength in numbers would help them survive. This group ended up being rather weak due to the spread of experience among them. The third group, and arguably the strongest in their group were the guilds. I didn't belong to any of these groups. I never have in any MMO before, and I wasn't going to change my habits now. I was one of the tiny minority of soloers, most of which were beta testers. Of course out of all these groups, around 2500 people had died already.

By this point, the first few floors had been cleared by a few brave groups, and the majority of players had moved up to the 4th floor via the Teleport Gate. I was currently level sixteen, and now had three skill slots. They were filled with One-Handed Sword, Scan For Enemy, and Parry.

I opened up the weapons tab in my inventory to replace my sword that had just run out of durability, and found myself stopping on the strange weapon again. I always found myself wondering if putting that skill into a skill slot would make the weapon and the skill legible, but survival always took priority over curiosity lately.

No matter. My +10 Peerless Edge got the job done well enough. I'd never have gotten it that high, but a up and coming blacksmith named Lizbeth saw me grinding one day and straight out demanded that she work on it. She wouldn't take no for an answer, not that I cared when she got it all the way without failing a single time. The monster dropped sword was good and all, but having it at +10 made it a lot more viable to carry for a couple more floors.

Ultimately it would be my cockiness that would be my downfall, rather than the equipment I had on me.

Ten Giant Spider monsters had surrounded me in the secluded part of floor four's labyrinth I had been grinding in. Unfortunately, I used my last teleportation crystal last week while mapping out floor three. At this point, my health was low, and I was out of options. One spider was now holding me down, while the others spit poison on me, almost mockingly, causing me to scream in terror.

The sharp noise of cold steel caused the spiders to scatter. Through bleary eyes, I could see a small group of players slowly and systematically destroying the group with oddly oiled teamwork. While the others fought, a man with an unshaven chin and odd red hair ran up to me, and without hesitation pulled out an antidote crystal. The man activated it with a quick word, and then drained a health potion into my mouth.

"T-Thanks," I spoke, even though my throat was raw from all the screaming, "I'd have been...well you know... dead"

"Heh." the man scratched the back of his head, "Heard the screams while me and my guild were mapping this floor out, figured we'd try to stop this game from taking one more life."

"W-well," I struggled to my feet, feeling the healing potion slowly restore my strength, "I appreciate it...?"

"Klein." the man put on a massive grin and stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet ya!"

"A-aurain," I took his hand in mine and shook it with a small grin myself. I still couldn't keep the nervousness out of my voice though. It'd be nice if I could have a normal conversation without stuttering and feeling all jittery.

By this time, the rest of the guild had finished off the spiders, and had made their way over to where Klein and I were standing.

"You going to introduce us buddy?" an extremely tall, gaunt man with brown hair, in about his 20s, came up to Klein and rested an arm on his head. By this time I noticed they had a large diamond separated into four smaller diamonds on all their gear. Must be the guild emblem.

"Ah yeah." Klein got to his feet and shoved his guild mate's hand off of his head, "This is my guild Fūrinkazan."

"Yo!" the same gaunt man from before, dressed in leather armor, "My name's Issin! Glad to see we got to you fast enough mister soloer."

"M-my name's Aurain." I couldn't keep the growing grin back any further despite the situation.

Soon after, the rest of Fūrinkazan introduced themselves. There was an overweight man that funnily enough had one of those headbands on I sometimes saw sumo wrestlers wearing on TV. That white twisted one that was knotted in the front. His name was Dale. Next, there was a man almost as tall as my five feet ten inches height. He wore heavy metal armor and also carried a spear. At the time, I could see many of his other features due to all the armor. His name was Harry. The second to last member had one of those japanese mustaches you'd always see on Japanese emperors in old pictures. He had a red bandanna on his head, obscuring all his hair. He carried a basic sword and shield, and his name was Dynamm. The final member of the party was like a tank. He had a massive shield, a long spear, and was decked out in full armor. His name was Kunimittz.

After the introductions were over, Klein suddenly dragged me to my feet.

"You should probably get back to the town and get some mental rest even if you physically fine," Klein's face turned serious, "There's been rumors of players having a lot more trouble with players attacking them for their money. I've even heard rumors of player killing."

"Really?" I could feel a bit of rage building. I never did like PVPing when you could actually kill other players for their items in the first place. But in this game, player killing was actually killing. It put a sour taste into my mouth.

"W-well alright." I started heading towards the exit of floor four's labyrinth, "I'll be seeing you guys later then."

I picked up my sword off the ground and gave a quick little nervous wave goodbye before hoofing it out of the dungeon. Why is it that I have to feel so bloody awkward. Those guys were nice. It would have been nice to make a few friends in this world. I don't think that crazy blacksmith lady counts, even if she did add me to her friends list.

I gave a small sigh, before turning the corner and seeing the wonderful light that signaled the exit from floor four's labyrinth, which was a maze of mossy stone ruins. Suddenly my Scan For Enemy sensors went completely haywire. I whipped out my sword and instantly switched on my basic Parry skill. I flowed with the system, managed to block a large knife and shoved the weapon to the side. Right in front of me was the exact type of person Klein had just warned me about. A player whose color was... wait red!? Does red mean what I think it means!? It has to mean player killer. The man in the black cloak let out a slow evil laugh.

"Well now." He quickly jumped back, "Looks like I didn't choose easy prey this time. It's been awhile since someone was able to see through my Hide skill with their Scan For Enemy skill.

"Thanks." the adrenaline kept my voice steady, "I've been focusing on getting it up as high as I can. It's kind of important for a soloer."

"Oh?" the cloaked man sheathed his large knife that almost looked like something you'd see in a butcher's shop, "Then I think I'll leave you to your devices... Mr. Beater."

"Wait what's a beater!?" the man had already faded into the shadow, his signature quickly fleeing away from my range of sensing.

"Tch." I spit on the ground, "Coward."

I quickly pulled up my friends list, and tapped the add friend button. I typed in Klein and waited for a response. A minute or two later, when I was now sitting in the field just outside the labyrinth, the confirmation response came back. I quickly tapped the messenger button and waited as a little phone tone rang for a few moments. After a moment Klein picked up.

"Yo!" Klein sounded a bit out of breath. Probably just finished up a fight, "What is it Aurain? I was surprised to see the friend request."

"You guys need to be careful." I spoke with urgency. "There's a fairly high level pker in the labyrinth right now."

"Really?" Klein replied, "Did someone come after you or something?"

"Yeah." I got to my feet, "I was barely able to detect him. He ran away after seeing how strong I was. I'd recommend keeping an eye out."

"Hey thanks buddy!" I could hear the grin in Klein's voice. "We'll make sure to get back to town before dark so we don't have to deal with night penalties to our detection skills."

"A-alright" I didn't want the guys who had just saved me to die to some pker loser.

"Hey you want to meet up in the tavern after this?" Klein asked, "You've got nothing better to do right?"

"I-I guess not," ah to hell with it. I might as well talk to these guys. I could use some friends to talk to. Talking to yourself gets boring.

"Alright then!" Klein sounded pretty happy, "Meet us at that one tavern on the south side of town."

* * *

To my surprise, I found myself sitting in a back corner of the tavern at a big oak table. I had headed there as soon as it turned to night, since Klein didn't give me a specific time. At around seven pm game time, the entire six person guild came loudly into the bar, laughing about something. I'd be lying if I didn't shrink into my chair a little bit.

I forced my voice up from a now very very dry throat, "O-over here guys!"

I had no idea what I was getting my poor shy self into.

* * *

I actually found all of Klein's guild member's names off the SAO wiki. No clue how accurate they are. Also if anyone cares, Fūrinkazan, literally "Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain", was the battle standard used by the Sengoku period daimyo Takeda Shingen, quoting chapter 7 of Sun Tzu's The Art of War: "Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain." (from Wikipedia) It's actually pretty bad ass for a guild name. Aurain's nervousness sorta goes away when he's angry or on edge. So if anyone was wondering about the Kayaba talk last chapter.

As a last side note, reviews are great motivators. I'm not begging for them or anything, but any writer is motivated by criticism both negative and positive.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to the three people that reviewed. In response to the one anon, I'm not gonna take your word on anything because you anonymously reviewed. This is especially so when you get details on my story a little confused right after reading it.

I don't own SAO. That's pretty much all I'm gonna say. It's like 3 am.

* * *

Chapter III: Moving Forward

* * *

It's been around a full year or so now since I met up with Klein and his guild. I think it's January? Since then the front lines have moved forward at a staggering pace. Just last week, I teamed up with a group of soloers and a couple of the top-tier guilds to clear out floor fifty's boss. Which was a special piece of hell when it came to the usual strength of bosses. Of course that's not my usual habit. Since that unfortunate incident in the woods, when I'm not hanging with Klein and his guild, I'm killing mobs or sleeping. I've reached level 67, which is far and above what the game requires at this point. Most players were around 55-60. I wouldn't even say my obsessive grinding was in fear of the monsters. I'm still haunted by the faceless PKer that tried to end my life. The bastard lives in my nightmares.

"Hey Argo!" I tapped the side of the door that led into a humble little cottage on the outskirts of floor twenty-eight's main city, "Are you home!"

Argo "The Rat" was the go to for any sort of information. I wasn't entirely sure how, but the girl managed to know just about everything in Aincrad. Klein had pointed me to her a month or so back when I had wanted some information on my gibberish weapon. I didn't actually TELL him that's what I was looking for, just that I needed to some information nobody else could tell me. Unfortunately Argo wasn't able to help me that time, but I hoped she'd have the information I needed this time.

"Is that you Au-bou!?" I could barely hear a voice reply from inside, "I'll be right up!"

True to her word, Argo popped her whiskered face out the door in less than a minute and beckoned me inside. She sat me down at a table and shoved a cup of hot tea into my hands.

"So what do you need this time?" Argo planted herself in a chair across to me. "Hopefully its something I actually KNOW this time so we don't waste each others time like last time."

"I c-could just be here socially." my usual nervousness around other people kicked in as swift as usual, despite knowing the girl fairly well. Klein teases me about it mercilessly sometimes.

"I doubt that." Argo put her head on clasped hands and looked me in the eyes, "Since when do you make social calls with anyone besides Klein, Aurain the Shadow."

Ah yes, the moniker people had taken to giving me the last few months. Yet another thing born out of my paranoia. After the run in with that PKer, I had trained all the related stealth skills that I could. Hence the title "shadow" since that's what I seemed to players when I was actively grinding outside towns.

"I want to know about the rumors of a PKer guild forming." I took a sip of the hot tea. It had a bit of an orange flavor to it. Reminded me of tea my grandma used to make for me.

"Laughing Coffin?" Argo swished her own tea around in its cup. "I don't even know if they really exist, and I don't know much else other than the fact that their leader carries a butcher knife looking sword."

I knew I flinched a bit at that. That particular detail was far too coincidental.

"Is that it?" I drained the cup of tea, relishing the warm feeling inside my belly while it lasted. January was a hell of a cold month in SAO.

"Well maybe you need to stop asking such obscure things." Argo was pouting at this point, "I never have trouble getting info for anyone besides you! First that screwed up item, now some rabbit hole rumors of a guild made to basically murder other players!"

"Sorry sorry." I waved my hands in front of my face apologetically. "I'll pay you, and be on my way.

"Hold on a second." Argo's voice took on a strangely serious tone I didn't usually hear from her. "You're planning on trying to find Laughing Coffin aren't you?"

"I-I-I..." I heard my stutter kicking in worse than ever. It'd be nice if I could lie properly without turning into a blubbering mess.

"Just be careful Aurain..." Argo mumbled softly, "I won't try to stop you, despite how shy you act; I know you won't stop once you get behind something."

"Argo... I uh, " I felt myself tongue-tied at her words

"Anyways!" Argo slapped me on the back, laughing nervously, "How about for payment you just equip that strange item you showed me a while back. I've been dying to know what it is!"

"Ehhhh...!" I stared at her like she was crazy, "What if it harms me!?"

"Just do it," Argo gave me a deadpan look that I had learned in my time in SAO to not ignore from women. It never ended well. Especially not with Lizbeth. Never say no to that girl.

"Fine fine..." I pulled up my inventory and scrolled down to the gibberish weapon that had been taunting me for ages.

With a trembling finger, I quickly tapped the equip button. To my surprise the letters blurred, before forming into actual coherent words.

"Battle Claws?" I stared down at the unfamiliar things on my arms. They were essentially gauntlets with 4 claw like blades coming off of it, "I didn't really see this one coming."

"Check your skill menu." Argo looked positively fascinated by the development, "Didn't you say there was a skill garbled in the same manner?"

"Er yeah," I swapped to my skill menu and saw a skill simply named Claws. The only attack skill I could use right now was something called 'Reave' ,"H-hey Argo?"

"Hmm?" the girl in question was currently examining my claw up and down, completely unnerving me.

"D-do you mind not giving this information away to anyone?" I unequipped the claws, much to Argo's disappointment if the frown on her face was anything to go by, "You know how players are. I'd be h-harrased day and night."

"Well... I guess." Argo smirked up at me before standing to her feet and tending to some pot on her stove, "But only because you're so cute when you're nervous."

I felt heat immediately rise to my cheeks. What kind of reason is that!? Muttering obscenities about crazy girls with rat whiskers painted on their faces, I rushed out the door, banging my knee on the door frame in my rush.

* * *

I faced down a level thirty Savage Bear with my new claws equipped. This was a fairly obscure part of floor 28 so I wasn't worried about anyone spying on me. This bear was practically a mini boss anyways. My knees were shaking despite my vastly superior level. I had no idea how these stupid things worked.

The bear charged me. I selected the 'Reave' skill in my head and felt the system take over my movements. I rushed forward to meet the bear, my arms tucked tightly at my side. The bear opened its mouth and lunged, intent on biting my head off. I ducked right under its jaws, and tore the front of its chest right open. The bear's hp shot down like rocket. Not really surprising since this was such a low floor for my level

"Holy..." I gave the claws a once over. I had out sped that bear by a massive margin, "I don't remember being that fast."

I flipped into my item screen and pulled up the weapon's item description. I let out a gasp when I read out the special effect on it. It was capable of quadrupling my already high speed. Not to mention according to the description its stats rose along with my levels. Of course if that was the case, what was that book that Kayaba gave me supposed to be used for? I originally thought it was a blacksmithing manual for making more of this claw weapon back when I didn't know what the weapon was.

I summoned the item and question and let it fall into my hands with a thump. Just like before, the words seemed to shift and twist before my eyes before they finally became legible.

'Beta Weapon: Experimental Battle Claws' was what the newly translated cover read. I pulled open the cover, finding blocks of information. None of it was particularly useful from what I could see, just a list of the skills useable be the weapons, as well as wealth of information about the weapon's development process and eventual trashing. Evidently the coding was still in the game though, since Kayaba was able to give it to me.

"Why would he give me this?" I flipped through the pages, my mind working furiously, "This is just a bunch of useless documentation..."

After a good ten minutes, I sighed in defeat and flopped to the ground sighing deeply. What is it with megalomaniacs and cryptic plans? It'd be nice if Kayaba didn't match up with every deranged villain I'd read about in my comic books.

"Hey what book is that?"

My mind went into red-alert mode, and I instantly scrambled to my feet and faced the...pink haired girl that I had seen a weird amount of lately. Not really sure why, I don't really fancy many of my qualities appealing to many girls, even for just being their friend. Especially Japanese girls, considering I'm a foreigner and all.

"H-hi Lisbeth," I could feel my heart slowly calming down, "Could you P-PLEASE try not to sneak up on me like that. My stealth skills don't alert me when you're there, since I added an exception for you on and everyone else on my friends list."

"S-sorry," Her face pinked slightly, "I saw you leaving town and decided to follow. I was curious since you wouldn't normally waste your time on such a low floor like this one."

"A-ah," I scratched the back of my head, "Apology accepted. S-Sorry for shouting."

"Could you answer my question?" the blacksmith poked me in the chest, obviously not missing my poor attempt to hide the book behind my back.

"I-I'd rather not," My nervousness grew as the girl pressed herself closer to me; the anger on her face getting more and more obvious.

"Tell. Me. Now." Lisbeth jabbed her finger into my chest at each word, "It's just a book and I'm curious!"

How close of a friend could I consider Lisbeth? I'd seen the things players would do if someone had some sort of unfair advantage over them. I really felt for Klein's friend Kirito. Originally I got a bit mad over how coldly Kirito acted to Klein, but after Klein explained the situation, I felt like I understood. People saw Kirito as some sort of cheater that was only out for his own good. People might see me in the same way if it got out that I had unique skills no one else could acquire. Even if they didn't, I'd be pestered day and night for my 'methods' until they came to the same conclusion as they did for Kirito. While I didn't like mingling with large groups of people, I didn't want to be an outcast to everyone. Would Lisbeth betray me to the rest of Aincrad's populace? I didn't... I didn't think so...but still.

"Hey Aurain?" Lisbeth's voice was much softer than before, "Are you okay?"

I looked up to see that Lisbeth had taken a step back and was looking at me almost... worriedly?

"I'm sorry if I was being so aggressive about the book; I know how shy you are," Lisbeth refused to even look at me once our eyes met, "But mum says I should alwa-"

"I-I'll tell you," I replied, resigning myself to the fate. The girl wouldn't do anything to hurt me, I don't know what I was thinking. Besides dragging me everywhere and convincing me that she needed to be my personal blacksmith, Lisbeth had never had anything but nice things to say to me.

"R-really!" Her face lit up, "Does it have to do with something with the things on the ground next to you?

I had forgotten to put the claws away apparently, "It actually does... Why don't we go get a private room at the inn so we can talk about it in private?"

"If it's really that important you really don't have to," Lisbeth rubbed her feet on the ground, her face turning red. What's she getting all embarrassed for? Sheesh, I'll never understand girls.

"I-It's fine really." I muttered grabbing her hand and dragging her along, "N-Now you're making me feel embarrassed."

* * *

"So it's just a book with development stuff for those claws?" Lisbeth flipped through the pages of Kayaba's book again, "Seems kinda silly for the creator of SAO to hand it over to you."

I nodded, absent-mindedly checking my clock. I was supposed to meet Klein in about an hour on floor forty-eight. We were going to go over plans for leveling in floor fifty one's labyrinth. I just wasn't really sure how to tell Lisbeth I had to leave soon, the thought making me both strangely sad and nervous.

"Ah Lisbeth?"

"Yes?" the girl still had her nose stuck in the book. She was determined to find a recipe to blacksmith the claws, even though I had told her multiple times it didn't exist.

"I need to go meet up with a friend of mine on floor forty-eight to talk about some things. Want to come?"

Lisbeth's face lit up again and she nodded vigorously. Wait a second, why did I ask her to come with!? Oh well... guess it's time to introduce her to Klein. I can't just take it back now. Hopefully Klein will keep himself under control and won't ask her about her availability like he seems to do with every girl, no matter what their age.

* * *

"Yo Aurain!" Klein's voice sounded from behind me inside the cluttered tavern located in the main town on floor forty-eight. The city and the tavern were really nice, so many players used it to plan for their trips on the forty-ninth floor. People might be using floor fifty soon though. Its main city was really big and well maintained

"H-Hey Klein." my nervousness kicked in more from the stairs than talking to the older man, "Where's the rest of your guild?"

"Getting supplies." Klein looked over at Lisbeth, "Who's the girl? Is that the cute blacksmith that keeps accosting you all the time? I don't remember you telling me she had pink hair."

"I got it changed a few weeks back," Lisbeth fingered a stand of it, "And for your information, Aurain comes willingly. I do not accost him!

"My name's Klein. Single. 23. Would you lik- urk!" Klein made that special noise he makes when someone kicks him in the balls. Happens to him every time a member of Fūrinkazan does it. Even though it doesn't hurt.

"Uh what was that?" Lisbeth looked at the guild leader with a bewildered.

"Nothing. Nothing." Klein waved a wand in front of his face nervously. Seriously though, Klein needed to get himself a girlfriend when we get out of SAO. The way he asks every single girl he meets if they're available was really starting to annoy me. I wasn't expecting him to get revenge for the kick though.

"So is this your girlfriend then?" Klein smirked, his sentence sending heat blazing into my face, "You two do sure seem to hang around each other a lot."

"N-nothing like that!" I stammered back and ducked my head.

Klein continued to tease me and Lisbeth at every turn while we made small talk until his guild returned. I had contemplated joining them before, but my nature always told me it was for the best to stay solo. I didn't want anybody being hurt by my own inevitable mistakes someday. Or by that hooded man. No one would be hurt by him on my behalf.

* * *

Well there we go. I didn't expect it to take this long, but a small amount of writer's block and college make an oddly good combination.

-Forscythe


	4. Chapter 4

Talking

_Thinking_

Wow. The alerts and favorites and reviews that are coming in for this story are nice to my ego.

**Hunter-35** – Thanks for the review. You hit the main character pretty spot on for what his character has been thus far.

**ShadowFreddyRaven** – Thanks for the review? I can't really tell because it's in Spanish and Google Translate translated it into a mess.

**Hector4349 – **Thanks for the review.

This chapter was somewhat rough to write. I'll leave it at that. I have more written, but I felt it better belonged in the next chapter before this one turned into a monster that I didn't like.

* * *

Chapter IV: Murder?

* * *

I munched on the virtual sandwich in my hand, still marveling at how real it tasted. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, since it has been well over a year now since the death game started. To tell the truth, I would have thought in the three months since the rumors of Laughing Coffin being formed that they would make some sort of mistake to reveal themselves. The only thing I had at this point was more rumors, which is the reason I was sitting in this small outdoors cafe' on floor fifty-nine, enjoying the breeze.

I took a sip of the cafe's lemon tea and sighed. Well if Argo's information is completely wrong then at least the food here is good.

A loud scream made me jump and drop my sandwich.

"Well," I sighed to myself, flipping my hood back over my head, "Either that's Argo's information being right or Klein just got kicked in the balls again."

I slapped some Col down on the table and took off down the street in the direction of the continued screams. The sight that awaited me a few blocks from the cafe wasn't a pleasant one. A man in heavy armor was hanging by his neck off of a building's balcony. If that wasn't enough, there was a massive spear protruding from his chest. It was a nasty looking spear too. A dark reddish-brown with jagged edges. Right. You can't hang someone in SAO, it'd be sort of necessary to stab someone to kill them. Still though, if this isn't a sleep PK** I wonder how someone could have pulled it off.

"The hell is that?" a voice from behind me startled me. I turned to look and saw Klein's friend Kirito. Behind him was a girl with auburn hair. Doesn't Lisbeth have a friend with auburn hair? I wondered if it's the same girl. Enough. I needed to do something before this poor guy dies. Hopefully my agility score is high enough to do what I was about to try to do. I equipped my claws and immediately sheathed the blades so no one would notice. Taking a deep breath, I sprinted towards the building.

"S-Someone get ready to catch him!" I ran up the wall, thanking Kayaba that he put the ability to run up walls in the game. Too bad it took so much agility, so most players couldn't do it. Slowly, I felt gravity pulling at my body, so I flipped off the side of the building and swiftly slashed the rope before retracting the blade on my left claw once again. Unfortunately I didn't plan my landing all that well, and I was forced to painfully roll against the cobblestone street.

"Dammit!" I heard Kirito shout, "The spear won't come out!"

I turned my head just in time to see the armored man dissolve into nothing with a scream of pain. My body went completely numb. How the hell was someone able to kill another player inside a town without sleep PKing them**!? I was unable see a victory message anywhere!

"H-hey Kirito!" thankfully my last few months spent with Klein's guild and Lisbeth had made it so I could actually make decent conversation with people I wasn't friends with, "D-did you see any victory message!?"

"Do I know you?" Kirito raised an eyebrow. Oh right, Klein never actually introduced me to him.

"A-ah." I scratched the back of my head, "I'm a friend of Kleins. I only really know you from what he's told me in passing."

"OH!" Kirito's face lit up in realization, "You're that nervous American friend of his! Aurain right?"

"Y-yeah."

"Well to answer your question Aurain, I didn't actually see a victory message either," Kirito sighed, "Which is what is confusing me right now."

"Right." the auburn haired girl finally walked up next to Kirito's crouched frame, "You aren't supposed to be be able to simply kill someone inside towns. They're supposed to be safe havens."

"M-maybe we should talk about this somewhere more private?" I could hear the crowd's frightened murmurs getting louder, "I d-don't want to deal with a frightened mob."

"Well first we should probably ask if anyone in the crowd saw anything we didn't." Kirito turned to the girl, "Want to go discuss this at an inn afterwords Asuna?"

"That's fine by me." Asuna answered and turned to me, "I'm gonna assume you want to come along too?"

"I-If I'm not a bother." I stared at my feet, watching Asuna's face out of the corner of my eyes.

"Nah." Asuna waved her hand, a warm smile slowly forming on her face, "The more heads the better."

"Alright!" Kirito stood to his feet, "Now that that's settled, is there anyone here that knows anything about what happened here? Any little bit of information could help."

The crowd talked loudly amongst themselves for a few minutes, and it didn't look like anyone was going to come forward. Finally, a timid looking girl with purple hair slowly worked her way to the front of the crowd

"U-um..." She softly spoke, "My name is Yolko."

"Was that first scream yours?" Kirito had returned to crouching by this point, and was slowly looking over the nasty looking spear that had been used for the murder.

"Y-yes," the girl looked on the verge of a breakdown, and was shaking like a leaf, "I was supposed to meet the man who just died here for dinner. His name was Caynz. We...We were in the same guild not too long ago, and we've remained close even after the guild broke apart. We got separated, and the next thing I knew I saw him hanging from the church window with a shadowy figure behind him."

"Hmm..." Kirito was deep in thought, "I hate to be the one to ask this, but was there anyone you know that might've had a grudge against Caynz?"

The girl slowly shook her head, shivering in the embrace Asuna had now wrapped her in.

"Y-you know." I finally spoke up, "Maybe we should walk her to an inn. It's getting late, and the killer might be after her too. N-not to frighten you miss."

Kirito got to his feet and stored the spear in his inventory, "That's not a bad idea Aurain. Where are you staying Yolko?"

"I'll lead you there," the girl wiped her eyes and directed us to follow us to the south part of town.

* * *

"So." Kirito was leaning up against the side of a fountain just outside the inn Yolko was staying at, "Where do we go from here?"

"It might not be a bad idea to get the item appraised and find out who made it," Asuna suggested, "Maybe they figured out a way to make an item outside the system that can kill players."

"That's a good start." Kirito got to his feet, "Either of you know anyone?"

"W-well," I replied, "I do know a girl that needs it because she does a lot of blacksmithing, but she's really busy at this time of day. The last time I bugged her around this time s-she almost bit my head off."

"Wait a sec..." A light seemed to go off in Asuna's head. "You're that shy guy that Lisbeth is always going on about! I thought your name sounded familiar!"

"Y-you're Lisbeth's friend Asuna then?" I stuttered, "D-does she really go on about me?"

Asuna's face morphed into a sneaky looking grin. I didn't like the looks of that, "Oh yes. She always has the nicest things to say about you. How courteous you are, and how heroic you were that time you saved her from being eaten by a giant lizard."

I felt heat rushing to my cheeks, and I immediately found my feet extremely interesting for the second time that day. I heard Asuna giggling loudly, and my face only got hotter. Luckily Kirito saved the day before Asuna could do anymore teasing, and mentioned a shop owner friend of his named Agil that might be able to get the job done. His shop was on the 50th floor, located in a back alley. Just as we were about to enter, the door almost knocked Kirito over as a guy carrying a spear stomped out sighing angrily.

"Still running your business as cuttthroat as ever Agil?" Kirito's grinned and walked in. He must be pretty good friends with this guy.

"Oh come on Kirito," A MASSIVE black man walked to the front of the counter, his muscles rippling with every step, "You're going to ruin my good name. You know my motto is 'Buy Cheap, Sell Cheap'."

"I really doubt the last part." Kirito grumbled good-naturedly before fist-bumping the man.

Suddenly Agil's eyes widened, and he grabbed Kirito's head and yanked him down below the counter, loudly whispering about why Kirito was visiting him with Asuna the Flash of all people. I turned my head to see Asuna's eyebrow visibly twitching, and took a step back from her.

"Geez Agil," Kirito pulled out of his friend's chokehold, "I'm just here to investigate something, and Asuna wanted to help out. Stop making such a big deal about it."

"Sorry Sorry," Agil patted Kirito on his shoulder, "So are you going to introduce me to your other friend?"

"His name's Aurain." Kirito replied, to which I nodded in response, "He wanted to help out with the investigation as well."

"N-nice to meet you." I ducked my head and held out my hand. Agil chuckled and shook it.

"So what do you need me for?" Agil sat down on a stool behind the counter.

"There was a murder on the 59th floor." Kirito pulled out the spear, "It was done without a duel, at least we think so since none of us saw a winner notification."

"Hmmm..." Agil seemed deep in thought, "And that's the spear that did it I assume?"

"Yeah." Kirito handed it over to the giant, "We were wondering if you could appraise it for us so we could know if its player-made or not."

Agil picked up the spear and pressed a few buttons on his interface, before frowning deeply.

"Your suspicions are correct. It's player-made all right."

"Well then who made it!?" Asuna spoke rapidly and leaned forward.

"Some guy named Grimlock," Agil shrugged, "I've never heard of him in my life. Honestly, this isn't even that good of a weapon, it's pretty average in every way. The weapon's name is Guilty Thorn if that helps any."

"Hmmm." Kirito took back the weapons and seemed to think about something for a second. Then suddenly he shoved the spear down at his right hand, eliciting a shriek from Asuna and a gasp from me. She grabbed his hand and slapped him across the face.

"Owww..." Kirito rubbed the red mark forming on his cheek, "Why'd you stop me?"

"Are you an idiot!?" Asuna got right up in his face, worry spread across her face, "That weapon already took one life! What if you stab yourself and we can't remove it!?"

"We can't be sure until we test it." Kirito looked completely serious. Does he think the man didn't actually die? Wait a second. Now that I think about it, I don't remember the man's life bar even going down. I bet Kirito is thinking the same thing, unless we both missed it happening. But we saw him die! How would you replicate something like that!? Whatever, maybe I'll tell Kirito my suspicions tonight in the inn. It can't hurt.

"No." Asuna wrenched the spear out of Kirito's hands and forced it into Agil's hands, "You take it Agil, and don't you dare let Kirito have it."

"R-right." Agil and I both shrank into our seats. Man Asuna could be scary for such a short and petite girl. Wonder if that was how a lot of Japanese girls were.

"Geez." Kirito sighed, seemingly unfazed by Asuna's outburst, "Let's just go to an inn then. Maybe when we meet Yolko tomorrow she can shed some light on the murder."

* * *

We met up with Yolko the very next morning, who spun us a tale of her guild's past. Golden Apple as it was called, was a small guild of only eight members. One day they found a very nicely enchanted ring that gave the wearer plus twenty strength and agility. I definitely would not mind having that. Anyways, the guild members ending up having an argument over whom the ring would belong to. Finally the majority decided to sell the ring, which was Griselda (the leader), a man named Grimlock, and three other guild members. The detail that threw up the biggest flag to me was the fact that Grimlock was Griselda's husband.

The real point of the story was just so Yolko could tell us her personal suspicions. She believed that the murderer was after one of the people who didn't want to sell the ring, and had set us off to go and look for Schmitt, who along with Yolko and Caynz were the ones that didn't want to sell it. We promptly set out to do just that. On the way there, Kirito and I both came to an agreement that the entire affair was suspicious, mostly because unless the murderer has found some massive exploit, everything about Sword Art Online's rules were fair. Once we found Schmitt the man came along quite easily, and we were back at the inn Yolko agreed to meet us at in no time at all.

"Why would Caynz be killed after this all this time!?" the man stood to his feet and gestured wildly. I couldn't help but agree with him on that point, "Is this about that stupid ring!? Did Grimlock kill his wife for it, and now plans to kill anyone who might know anything about the ring!?"

"I think whoever it is probably just after the ones that were against selling the ring," Yolko replied softly, "That means you, me, and... Caynz."

"Yeah." Kirito decided to throw in his own thoughts, "The spear could have just been made by Grimlock in the past. It doesn't mean he was the one to murder Caynz."

"What if..." Yolko began to shiver uncontrollably, "It isn't one of the alive guild members at all?"

"W-what like some random person killing you guys for the enjoyment of it?" I was skeptical to say the least, "T-that doesn't seem likely."

"N-no" Yolko's eyes were visibly bulging, "What if it's Griselda!? What if she's come back to take revenge on us because we wouldn't listen to her and forced her to call a vote."

A ghost? Surprisingly that almost sounded like some sick thing Kayaba would program into the game. It still didn't seem all that likely though.

"Urkkk..!" Yolko suddenly froze. She mouthed help me, before suddenly falling backwards out the window. I just managed to catch the sight of a dagger stuck in the small of her back before she fell out of sight.

Kirito and I dashed to windowsill just in time to see her disintegrate into particles. That was a really fast death.

"S-she's dead guys." I turned away from the window solemnly, "I think before she hit the ground."

Schmitt looked stricken, and seemed like he was about to bolt from the room any second. Can't say I blame the guy, two members of his former guild dead, and all the facts pointing to him being the one next.

"Asuna, protect Schmitt and lead him back to his guild!" Kirito shot out the window, "Aurain, you're with me if you can keep up!"

"W-what!?" I gaped at Kirito as he shot out the window. Did he see the killer!? I grumbled under my breath and leaped after the Black Swordsman. Hopefully I would be able to keep up with him without having my claws equipped.

"So what's the deal!?" I shouted over the wind rushing past my face, adrenaline coursing through my veins, "D-did you see the killer or something!?"

"Maybe!" Kirito shouted back, "Follow that cloaked guy!"

The two of us chased the cloaked figure over the rooftops for several minutes, before the man gave us the slip by teleporting away with a teleport crystal. I'd say that pretty much does away with the ghost theory unless that wasn't the killer. Ghosts that used teleport crystals couldn't exist.

Sighing in defeat, Kirito and I both headed back to the inn. We were greeted by an irritated Asuna who bopped Kirito on the head and a terrified Schmidtt. After assuring Schmidtt we'd catch the killer, we sent him on his way back to his guild. The poor guy was still convinced that the ghost of Griselda was behind the killings.

"I-I'm gonna part ways with you guys till tomorrow." I tugged on the back of Kirito's jacket, "I've got some stuff I need to take care of. Can I add you to my friend's list so we can get in contact later?"

Asuna immediately nodded her agreement, but Kirito spouted some stuff off about him being a soloer and didn't add anyone. Weird, I thought Klein had Kirito added. Maybe Klein was an exception.

I didn't really have anything to do before tomorrow, I just wanted some alone time to think things over. Could Laughing Coffin be involved in this incident? Argo's information that had said they might have been around on the 59th floor would match up. It was terrifying if Laughing Coffin had found a way around the rules of the game to kill anyone anywhere. I really hoped that wasn't the case. Eventually exhaustion won over me, and I slept.

A message notification was what rudely woke me up the next morning. Grumbling sleepily, I opened it. Enclosed was a message from Asuna apologizing for not contacting me sooner and asking me to meet her and Kirito at the grassy fields outside the restaurant we met Yolko at the day prior.

"S-so what's up?" I yawned tiredly, taking a seat at the table "Did you guys figure something out about the murders?"

"Actually we solved it last night," Kirito rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry we didn't get in contact sooner."

"I-It's fine," I reassured him, "I probably wouldn't have been much help anyways. So who did it."

"Yolko and Caynz did." Asuna was the one to answer.

"Wait what?" I swear my jaw dropped several inches.

As it turned out, the entire murder mystery was concocted by Yolko and Caynz with an elaborate plan to fake murders. This was done to lure Grimlock out of hiding for killing Griselda. He had apparently done this by hiring a member of Laughing Coffin. Argo's information was somewhat correct apparently.

Our conversation was interrupted when a rock slammed roughly in the middle of my forehead. Attached was a simple message: "Stay out of our business any further."

* * *

**forcing someone to press the accept button for a duel and then killing them

As a weird side note, SAO fans should go google Leeandlie's channel on youtube. She does AMAZING SAO song covers in english.

-Forscythe


	5. Chapter 5

Talking

_Thinking_

As always thanks for the reviews. One from Son of Helios and one from Tensei Kano

I'm gonna be perfectly honest, Lisbeth has become a weirdly beloved character of mine, and has forced her way into this story into places I didn't think she was going to even remotely influence. You guys should have seen the outline for this thing months ago. Finally, apologies for the last chapter. Not my best work and I'll probably go back and revise it at some point.

* * *

Chapter V: A Green Birthday

* * *

I didn't expect to have to listen to Lisbeth going on and on about Kirito on my birthday of all days. Not that she knew June 30th was my birthday, since I'd never told her before. It just would have been nice regardless for her to dote on me like she used to when I'd meet up with her looking completely exhausted. Normally I'm not really bugged when girls talk about guys around me, but for some reason being forced to listen to Lisbeth talk about Kirito was driving me up the wall.

"L-Lisbeth?" we were sitting in my favorite restaurant on the 36th floor, "Can we talk about something else? It's my birthday and I'm tired from spending all day yesterday fighting the boss on the 63rd floor."

"It's your birthday!?" Lisbeth's face went from loving and dreamy to peeved in a split second, "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I-It never came up." I edged back from the table slightly, "You've been busy with other things, and I've been up on the front lines constantly grinding and fighting floor bosses."

"Kirito would ha-"

"You know what." I suddenly stood up, my expression wooden, "I'm gonna go find Klein early. He might actually be fun."

I slapped enough Col down on the table to pay for both our meals and uncharacteristically stomped out of the restaurant with an unfamiliar feeling coursing through my veins. The stupid girl didn't even bother calling after me.

* * *

"Yo Aurain!" Klein waved at me cheerily, "So why'd you want to meet up with me so early for hunting!?"

I shook my head, trying to rid it of all images of frustrating, cute pink-haired girls, "N-No reason really. I just felt like getting started early today."

"The day after a boss?" Klein raised an eyebrow, "Bulllllshit Aurain. Spill buddy. What's got ya down."

I sighed. Guess I can't get anything past this guy after being friends with him for well over a year. "I... d-don't really know myself. I guess I could describe the situation to you and see if you can figure it out."

"Go ahead." Klein plopped himself down on the ground cross-legged. I sat down next to him."

"W-well..." I started, "I guess it all started when Lisbeth randomly started worshiping the ground Kirito walks on today. And on my birthday no less!? That's literally all she's talked about today, when all I wanted was a relaxing day with friends."

"Ah." Klein's face slowly morphed into a shit-eating grin, "I see EXACTLY what's going on my young friend."

"W-what?" the look on his face was unnerving me.

"You. Like. Lisbeth." Klein dragged out each word, "And a whole lot considering how much you're reacting from this."

"T-that's ridiculous!" I sputtered, feeling my face heat up.

"Well aren't you the little American Tsundere." Klein patted me on the head, "Suck it up and listen to the truth."

"Like advice about love is valuable coming from you," I muttered just loud enough for Klein to hear.

"Well don't look now, but it looks like your crush is worried about you," Klein jabbed me in the side, ignoring my entire insult, "Wonder how long she's been looking."

"H-hide me!" I ducked behind Klein's lanky frame, "No telling how angry she is with me."

"I dunno Aurain." Klein replied, "It looks like she's carrying some sort of box. Maybe it's a present?"

"S-shuuussshhh!" I curled up into a ball and made myself as small as possible.

"Excuse me Klein?" I heard Lisbeth's voice. She did sound worried...

"Yeah?" Klein replied

"Have you seen Aurain around anywhere?" Lisbeth asked, "He did say he was coming to meet you."

"I haven't." Klein answered, "We aren't supposed to meet up till later."

"Ohhhhh..." Lisbeth trailed off, "Well tell him I was looking for him. I really owe him an apology."

"R-right." Klein scratched his chin.

Lisbeth walked off back towards town, her head drooping down towards the ground.

"Mannnn" Klein yawned, "How can you feel good about make a nice girl like that be so sad?"

"..." I crawled to my feet and headed after Lisbeth, "I'll be back later."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't~"

"S-shut it."

* * *

I searched for Lisbeth for hours, but she wasn't even responding to the messaging system for friends. Eventually I decided to just head back to the restaurant and see if she was there. The place was eerily empty when I arrived. No sign of Lisbeth or anyone else for that matter. I did spy something on the back table where She and I had been sitting a few hours ago.

It was a note.

"We Warned You."

A rare feeling of intense rage boiled in my veins. The bastards. This is like some stupid cliché from a comic book where the villains take the thing they think is most important to you. I don't really think Lisbeth counts as the Mary Jane to my Spiderman unless Klein is right about something romantically for once.

I pulled up my instant messenger and sent out a message to Klein.

"Meet me just outside the Labyrinth, we've got an emergency"

"So you think Laughing Coffin is the group that grabbed her?"

"It's l-logical," I handed Klein over the note, "This is the same thing I always get when I go off on my investigations. They've just never done anything before now."

"Any other real clues?"

"Not really." I sighed, "Just this folded up note. Gahhh I can barely think straight!"

"Heh." Klein smirked, "I was right after all."

"Not the time Klein," I grinded out, "Girl in danger remember?"

"Mahhhh..." Klein was unflappable, "Calm down. The great Klein's already got this one figured out for you."

"R-really?"

"Yeah." Klein shoved the paper back into my hands, "Just unfold it loverboy."

I unfolded the note. To my great chagrin, there was an exact location located inside. They were apparently holding her near the giant waterfall in the southern side of this floor's labyrinth. I apologized to Klein for how rude I'd been and promptly shot off into the forest, ignoring his warning calls and my own sense of self-preservation.

* * *

As luck would have it, this was only the 36th floor so all the mobs were trash compared to my level at this point, so it didn't take long at all to make it to the waterfall in question.

"Lisbeth!?" I called out

"Ahhhhh..." a silky smooth voice came from directly behind me, "You got here a bit sooner than I expected."

I whirled around to see a figure I had only seen in nightmares for over a year.

"You...!?"

"So you do remember me!" the man took the massive butcher knife off his back and took a step forward, "I remember you well. A bit disappointing your detection skill isn't what it used to be."

"Where is she!?" I took a threatening step forward

"Myy..." the man chuckled, "Your personality sure changes when someone you care about is in danger. Don't worry she's just behind the waterfall. I haven't harmed her, and neither has anyone else."

Immediately I took off at my top speed and shot towards the waterfall. Unfortunately the hooded man was even faster than me and appeared in front of me just as I was about to enter the small cave.

"Going somewhere?"

"What do you want!?" He and I circled around each other.

"Nothing really." the man shrugged, "To cause others pain I suppose."

"So all you want is the world to burn!?"

"I suppose." the man cackled, "Now die!"

I barely brought my claws up to block as the man brought down his massive cleaver. The force of the blow practically drove me to my knees. Great. He was fast and he had stupid strength. Suddenly he kicked my legs out from under me and drove the edge of the cleaver into my chest, sending me flying back into the cave and my health bar shooting down at an alarming rate. Okay new strategy. I needed to grab Lisbeth and get the hell back to town before this guy killed me.

"Aurain!?"

"H-Hey Lisbeth." I groaned out, "Good to see you."

"Get out of here now!" She sounded like she was about to cry again. And again it was my fault.

"No need to worry." I coughed, "I'm gonna get us both out of here safe and sound."

"Don't try and play the hero!" Lisbeth was actually crying at this point, "Get out of here!"

I ducked under the cleaver again rolled away trying to garner some distance.

"Well you're slippery I'll give you that!" The man rushed me, "But soon I'll get to experience the anguish of both you and this girl in full. It will be glorious!"

"You. Are. Sick!" I ducked under another swing and finally managed to rake the man's side with a Reave.

"Come come!" the man laughed maniacally, "Make my blood BURN."

The psycho continued swinging at me, obviously intent on beheading me at this point. His finesse from earlier in the fight seemed to be gone though, which was the only real reason I was keeping up with him at this point.

"Oy Aurain!" I heard Klein calling, "Where are ya buddy!?"

The cloaked man suddenly stopped attacking me and jumped backwards at the sound of Klein's voice. Bless him. Klein, not the maniac with the cleaver.

"Well well..." He sighed, "Looks like we'll have to postpone this for another day Aurain."

And with that the man teleported away. I sighed deeply in relief and bent down to untie Lisbeth, who was being oddly quiet.

As soon as I finished untieing her, The Japanese girl tackled me to the ground and began sobbing into my chest.

"Er..."

"I thought you were going to die!" Lisbeth clutched herself closer, "That man was absolutely horrible! He dragged me by the hair and I thought he was going to kill you and and and..."

I awkwardly patted her on the back and made what I hoped were comforting noises. Finally she stopped crying, and lifted her head to look me in the eyes.

"NEVER make me worry like that again," She hiccuped, "Or I'll personally kick your ass all the way back to the Town of Beginnnings."

"I p-promise." I stuttered.

"Good." She laid her head back down on my chest to my embarrassment, "And I'll try not to get kidnapped like that again."

Feeling unusually daring I spoke up again, "You sure you aren't cheating on Kirito by snuggling up with me like this."

"Is that why you were so angry earlier," She mumbled into my chest. It felt nice, "You were jealous!?"

"According to Klein." I grumbled, "I'm not sure if I should trust him to try and interpret my emotions.

"Well don't worry." She looked me straight in the eyes, "I was just going on about some adventure I had. Sorry if it came out the wrong way."

"Alright..." I was still skeptical. She sounded pretty damn infatuated when she was talking earlier.

"Hmmpph." She glared down at me for a moment, "You know what!"

"W-what?"

Lisbeth suddenly grabbed the back of my head and promptly planted her lips on top of mine. She lingered there for a moment softly pressing hers to mine before pulling back and staring at me with a rosy red blush that probably matched mine.

"That."

"A-ah" My brain was on overload at this point.

"Awww..." Lisbeth stuck her tongue out at me, "Did I break you."

"M-maybe." I stammered, "I'll get back to you on that one."

* * *

That was a fluffy chapter...this fic seems to be writing itself lately. Mostly because of Lisbeth.

-Forscythe


	6. Chapter 6

Talking

_Thinking_

People on the alert/fav might want to go a chapter back. Chapter V never got sent out. To the one anon that reviewed, thank you for your kind words. Finally, thanks to the people that faved/alerted. Oh and sorry if this chapter is a tad short.

I don't own SAO. I dunno if I've put this in the last few chapter or not. I don't really know why it's needed.

* * *

Chapter VI: Sorrowful Goodbye

* * *

Laughing Coffin proved just as elusive as ever, it would have been nice if they were as easy to find as I was to their leader. Lately the killings had gotten more and more bold. I was almost surprised that Kayaba let them do it within the system. Then again, SAO's system was starting to seem really broken to me. People always seemed to figure out some way to exist outside the system. Heck I did at first until Kayaba found me out.

Knowing all that, it was hard to believe the message Argo sent me was true. Apparently she had found the home base of Laughing Coffin and wanted to meet up with me on the 50th floor to discuss some stuff. I hadn't expected there to be an entire group of people waiting for me. Some familiar and some not. I was glad to see some familiar faces like Klein, Kirito, and Asuna

Klein greeted me with a grin, "I should have figured you'd be here!"

"H-hi." I looked desperately in the milling crowd for Argo, and finally found her, "H-hey ARGO!"

"What is it Au-bou!?" I saw Argo's head pop up in the middle of the crowd, a mischievous grin plastered on her face, "Are you confused about there being so many people here? Did I forget to send the second message?"

"S-second message!?" I worked my way through the crowd, and eventually popped out in front of the girl, "Somehow I d-don't think there was a second message to begin with."

"Aw you know me so well," Argo's grin only grew wider.

"W-why do you insist on putting me in large crowds all the time," I whined, feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

"You'll thank me later," Argo patted me on the cheek before hopping on top of one of the tavern's tables, "HEYYYYY Everybody listen up!"

The crowd's roar slowly quieted down as people who had actually heard Argo yell spread the news to their neighbors. Soon everyone was paying full attention to the odd, small girl that I was still not sure qualified as a friend or a nuisance to my sanity. Probably a friend, even though I felt like my shyness was some sort of challenge to her. It seemed like she wouldn't rest until I was running around mooning people with no shame. Argo explained the situation to everyone as it was already presented in her message. Apparently we were going to head out later that day to strike at Laughing Coffin at the source. A good thing too, since as I already mentioned they were getting really daring lately with both the successful PKs and the failed ones lately. I worried daily that the cloaked man was going to come after Lisbeth or one of my other friends.

* * *

Argo's information led us into a really drab part of the 63rd floor covered in brown dirt and dead trees. In the end, only ten people ended up coming along, as over half left after hearing Argo out. To quote a cliche' regarding the place, it was quiet. Too damn quiet. The entire part of the labyrinth we were searching seemed to be completely deserted. I was on edge and my hands were shaking. I was surprised my dark-red hair hadn't started falling out, but maybe that was because of the rain matting it down.

"Well this place is creepy," Klein finally broke the silence. I was glad he decided to come along. It was nice to have someone I knew would watch my back. Not to say the rest of the crew was untrustworthy. Kirito had decided to come along as well as Asuna. I didn't really know the rest of them, but they seemed to be decent enough people. We searched for hours with no success. Maybe Argo's information was wrong?

Schwing! The feeling of dread I had felt since we entered the canyon suddenly returned full force. Of course. Argo's information is rarely wrong.

"It's an ambush!" one of the guys I didn't know screamed out.

Suddenly there were red players in cloaks everywhere, and everything turned to pure chaos

Blades and people were flying everywhere. I parried blades left and right, confused at who was friend or foe at that point. In the confusion, someone grabbed me from behind and slung me away from the main fight.

"I didn't expect you to come seeking me out after our last meeting." an all too familiar voice let out a maniacal laugh, "Seems I underestimated you again. You brought an entire crew of your friends with you too!"

"Y-you've got to be stopped," I was nervous despite my false bravado, as I turned to face the man with the giant cleaver "And someone's got to do it."

The man simply laughed and summoned his cleaver into his left hand, "Well since you want to die so badly I guess I can grace you with my name. I'm simply called PoH."

"P-PoH?" I wondered about the oddness of the name

"Well enough introductions!," the man cracked his neck, "Its show time!"

"_Well no choice but to use my normal blade," _I held my longsword out in front of me, "_I can't let anyone see my claws. Hopefully all my extra leveling will let me keep up without them._"

"Oh ho?" the man asked as I blocked his cleaver, "You aren't going to use your special weapon today?"

"I...shouldn't need it!" I grunted and threw off the cleaver before shifting into a Howling Octave sword skill. I stabbed him five times in the chest, before slicing him down, up, before pulling back into a powerful two-handed upward cut that sent him flying backwards, "Unlike you I don't spend my days murdering people!"

"Heh heh heh." the man stood back to his feet, seemingly unfazed. What!? I had hit with a Howling Octave. It was one of the most powerful sword skills someone could obtain to the players' knowledge.

"YES!" the man swung his cleaver with a new vigor forcing me to back pedal, "You! You make my blood burn with a passion! Why someone like you?"

"I don't know you wacko-bird!" I scrambled out-of-the-way of a Sonic Leap, "I w-wish I didn't make your blood burn"

The battle continued in a similar fashion. The man was basically on a blood frenzy of some kind at this point and was relentless. Dimly I heard the sounds of the rest of the group struggling with the ambushers, but what I was really focused on was the cleaver trying to take my head off. I wished over and over that I could use my claws to end it quickly. At this point I didn't even have the time even if I wanted to. PoH wasn't giving me a break. All I could do like last fight was block now that the element of surprise was gone.

"Aurain!?"

Oh what were the odds!?

"Run Lisbeth!" I parried the cleaver and jumped back from PoH, "This place is definitely not saf- AGHH!"

PoH slashed me across the middle sending me sliding across the muddy ground to the edge of a cliff, which my sword fell off, "Don't get distracted now!"

The man ran up to me and stamped down on my chest several times, knocking the breath out of me. Funny how Sword Art Online simulated that but not pain. After getting his violent entertainment. (I knew that much because he was laughing gleefully the entire time), the man raised up his massive cleaver, and cackled gleefully one last time

"Its show time~"

My eyes closed shut as I prepared to get stabbed through the chest. I heard the sound of it piercing a player, but the minor pain that came with being hurt in SAO never came. I opened my eyes.

Lisbeth was standing over me, PoH's cleaver in her chest. My entire vision went red in an instant. I screamed angrily and punched a surprised PoH straight in the face, sending him flying backwards over the cliff. Lisbeth! Was Lisbeth okay! Those were the very next thoughts that ran through my mind. She wasn't. I yanked out the cleaver and chucked it off the cliff after its owner. She still wasn't fine. Her health bar was practically depleted and still going due to the bleed damage. I frantically searched through my inventory for a healing crystal, since a potion wouldn't counteract the bleed damage well enough to prevent her from dying. Finally I found one and pulled it out. I frantically activated it. Nothing. Right. This labyrinth's gimmick was that it was a no crystal zone. I began to cry.

"A-Aurain," Lisbeth's voice, "It's all right."

"The hell it is!" my voice was unusually fierce through the tears, "KLEIN can you hear me! I need you over here now!"

"No it's fine." Lisbeth sighed with a pained look on her face, "I shouldn't have been out on the 63rd floor by myself. Especially with how dangerous it is compared to other floors. Please don't blame yourself for my own actions."

"But!" I tried to start, but Lisbeth placed a finger on my lips to silence me.

"Could you..." her health bar was almost empty, "Kiss me one more time before I'm gone?"

"I...yes." I gathered the pink-haired girl in my arms, my tears dripping onto the front of her clothes with the rain.

"Please stop crying." she brushed the tears from my eyes before gently brushing her lips up against mine, "I don't want my last kiss to be a salty wet one."

We kissed for a few moments, before the last portion of her health bar depleted and Lisbeth dissolved into crystal fragments, a happy small smile etched onto her face.

"She's gone Klein." I sobbed to the man that had just come up behind me, "She's gone."

* * *

I really teared up during that scene while writing it =(

-Forscythe


	7. Chapter 7

Talking

_Thinking_

Thanks to Azahra, Panthour, Son of Helios, and RomanceDagger for their reviews and concerns. Believe me I feel as sad as all my viewers that I wrote what I wrote. But I digress, read on.

I don't own SAO, but you knew that already.

* * *

Chapter VII: Christmas Miracle

* * *

"Calm down Aurain." I heard Klein say, before I felt his hand clap me on the shoulder.

I stared at the ground, completely numb. How was I supposed to stay calm? Lisbeth was dead. In my haze, I saw Klein walk past me briskly before opening up his inventory for some reason. A blue gem with a metal holder plopped into his hand. It slowly began glowing brighter and brighter before floating over to the place Lisbeth's body had disappeared. Then, like some sort or amazing miracle, the crystals from Lisbeth's death reformed out of midair. They hovered for a moment before slamming together and creating a blinding flash.

When the light faded, Lisbeth was there again, curled up on the ground in a loose ball. I turned to Klein, confused as hell.

Klein grinned, "You can thank Kirito. He gave that to me last Christmas. It's a one-of-a-kind event item that can revive someone if you get to them ten seconds after they die."

"Seriously!?" I scrambled to my feet and wrapped the older man in a bear hug, "THANK YOU!"

Klein chuckled, "You're welcome. I'm just glad I still had it. Lisbeth's my friend too you know."

"A-Aurain!?"

I broke off my hug and turned to look at the girl I had thought was gone forever. She was rubbing her eyes like she just woke up. I scrambled over to her and wrapped her in an equally tight hug as I had given Klein.

"I died didn't I?" the girl softly whispered, "Is this some sort of cruel joke the afterlife is playing on me?"

"You did die." I squeezed her tighter to make sure she was real, "But Klein had an event item from last Christmas that can bring people back to life if it's used fast enough."

"He's a good friend." Lisbeth rested her head on my shoulder, "I can't believe such an item exists."

"Mhmm." I hummed, "Lisbeth?"

"Yes?"

"I l-l-l-love you."

"W-what!?" Lisbeth's face turned bright red, "What brought that on!?"

"I w-wanted to tell you while I still had the chance." I replied.

"W-well," Lisbeth stuttered, "I l-love you too. It's sort of weird."

"Weird?"

"I didn't really expect to fall in love with an American in a VRMMO of all places." Lisbeth laughed, "What are my parents going to think?"

"W-well the feeling's mutual," I replied, "So uh, are we boyfriend and girlfriend now?"

"We weren't before?" Lisbeth was puzzled.

"Er no, at least not officially," I scratched the back of my head, "We haven't really done anything since kissing in the cave."

"Good point." Lisbeth pouted, "We really should fix that soon."

I gave her one last squeeze before reluctantly leaving her embrace. It wasn't really safe to be having heart to heart talks inside a floor's labyrinth.

"H-hey Klein?" I approached the man who had politely turned his back. I dunno what he thought we were going to do. We didn't even kiss.

"Yeah?" Klein replied

"How'd the fight go?"

"We..." Klein paused for a moment, before continuing tiredly "Lost a couple of guys. Probably would've lost more if Kirito hadn't turned into a demon and fought three red players at once. The members of Laughing Coffin that were here are all dead."

"I wonder how they got the jump on us." I sighed tiredly, "Do you think they had a mole in the crowd at Argo's meeting?"

"Maybe." Klein was unusually subdued. I wondered if Lisbeth almost dieing on top of all the others hit him more than he showed.

"Do you want to grab Kirito and Asuna and go to the 50th floor for some drinks?" I felt unusually thankful for my friends, "I could use some time with you guys."

"Sure." Klein clapped me on the back.

"You want to come Lisbeth?"

"Of course!" Lisbeth smiled beautifully, "I don't want to miss a moment with you now that I've been given a second chance!"

* * *

I endured endless teasing from Asuna in the tavern due to how loving Lisbeth was being. My girlfriend was holding onto my arm, and had snuggled into my chest to both my embarrassment and pleasure. It was odd really liking something, but having my immense shyness make me miserable about it at the same time. We ate and celebrated until it was really late. It was around one in the morning when we finally separated and Klein, Kirito, and Asuna went their separate ways, leaving me and Lisbeth all alone next to the fountain just outside the tavern.

"The fountain is really pretty at night with all the street lamps shining on the water." Lisbeth leaned up against me. We had decided to sit and talk a while on one of the benches across from the fountain.

"Yeah it is." I rested my head on top of hers.

"Have you ever though about what we're going to do when the game is cleared," Lisbeth asked suddenly, "We live halfway across the world after all."

"I'll v-visit you as soon as I can," I promised, wrapping an arm daringly (for me anyways) around her shoulder, "And we can keep in email contact."

"Rika Shinozaki."

"Huh?" I was confused as to why Lisbeth had suddenly said a random Japanese name.

"That's my name in real life." Lisbeth replied quietly.

"A-Ah." I shivered a bit in the chill air, and felt Lisbeth trying to snuggle deeper into my side, "Mine's Ryan Kennedy."

"R...yan..." Lisbeth tested the name on her tongue, "It suits you."

"T-Thanks."

"Well while we're talking about the real world," Lisbeth swung her legs back and forth, "Are your eyes that beautiful shade of green in real life?"

"Y-yes," I felt heat creeping up my neck, "I didn't customize them like you did with your hair. It's all natural."

"Good." Lisbeth yawned tiredly, "I want to be able to look at them when you come to visit."

* * *

Lisbeth insisted that we sleep in the same room at the inn. Apparently she wanted to spend as much of our limited time together as possible. I wasn't going to disagree with her. It was nice going to sleep looking at her beautiful face. The freckles on the top part of her cheeks made her all the cuter.

I sighed about the corny thought I just had. The whole where has this girl been all my life spiel. It wasn't like I was really even old enough to even think about dating when I entered SAO. I was only fourteen after all. Now though I was sixteen, and I had had all sorts of corny romantic thoughts lately. I wondered how my parents would take the news that I picked up a girlfriend on the internet. They were probably so worried for me at this point that they'd just be glad to see me out of my VRMMO coma. Heck, my dad might even congratulate me.

"Can't sleep?" Lisbeth spoke softly.

"Mhmm." I mumbled, "Too many things on my mind.

"Like?" She sat up in the bed and scooched over to lean her head on my shoulder.

"My parents mainly. They've got to be so worried about me." I looked up at the ceiling, "They probably don't even think I'm ever going to wake up."

"I'm sure they believe in you to survive." Lisbeth reassured me with a smile

"Thanks." I smiled back, "Hopefully I won't disappoint them."

"I don't think you will." Lisbeth kissed me on the cheek, "Good night."

"Night." I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

I munched on a waffle while Lisbeth yawned sleepily. She has got to stop looking so adorable while half asleep

"Say Lisbeth..." I started, "I think I'm going to stay away from the front lines for a while."

"Why?"

"I'm..." I sighed and looked at the ground, "Scared."

"Because I died?"

"Yeah. I don't want some freak coincidence ending my life or yours. I'll probably buy a nice house on this floor and just relax for a while. The game can wait to be cleared. We've been alright for two years or so. I don't think a couple more months is going to hurt."

"Now you listen here Aurain." Lisbeth's voice turned stern. Oh geez. I was in for it, "You don't need to be running away from your fears in the hopes that they go away. You're one of the top players in SAO."

"But-"

"No buts!" She got up right in my face, "After all the faster you clear it, the faster I'm safe right? Isn't that what you're really worried about?"

"I...yeah..." I grumbled in reply, "Could you stop being so perceptive from now on?"

"Nope," She stuck her tongue out at me, "That'd ruin the fun of our relationship. So you'll start training me up so I can help out?"

"Okay..." when I realized what she said my eyes bugged out, "WHAT! NO!"

"Aurain..." Lisbeth's voice turned from playful to angry in a second, "I am not some china doll to be escorted around. I can take care of myself! I want you to try to remember that while you date me!"

"I s-surrender," Lisbeth's face brightened into a smile upon my response.

"Good." she pecked me on the cheek. Somedays I wished she would warn me before she does that, "Then we'll start tomorrow. Where do you want to begin?"

"You're level 74 right?" Lisbeth nodded to my question, "I guess the 62nd floor isn't a bad place to start."

"Isn't that a little low to go power leveling?"

"Nope," I replied, "I can kill mobs a lot more rapidly there and set the experience sharing to go all to you. You'll be caught up in no time at all."

"What level are you?" Lisbeth cocked her head to the side.

"I'm level 90." I replied nonchalantly, swearing that Lisbeth's jaw practically dropped when I told her, "What?"

"But..." she stammered, "T-that's so high!"

"I g-guess..." I scratched the back of my head, "I've still got 30 levels till level cap though."

"Still." Lisbeth asked, "So why were you having so much trouble with the cloaked guy?"

"My strength stat is crap compared to my agility," I blushed, "I really need to start raising it up higher. It's just nice to be able to dodge basically everything and be so fast."

"Ah, okay." Lisbeth nodded, and we went back to eating our breakfast in a nice sort of silence.

* * *

"Get your weapon out to defend yourself." I had led Lisbeth to a secluded part of floor 62, "This place spawns mobs at an insane rate. I need you to be ready to defend yourself if any break past me."

"You think you can kill them all?" Lisbeth sounded skeptical and a little scared as the group of around 10-20 mobs appeared in front of us.

"I know I can." I brought out my claws and activated a skill I'd unlocked a few weeks ago.

_"FLASH STEP."_

To Lisbeth I was probably there for a second and then in front of the first bugbear tearing it in half with a basic Reave skill the next second. I turned around on one foot and reappeared in front of the next two, killing them in one blow, my dark blue cloak flapping in the wind created in my wake. This continued until all the mobs were gone. It had taken less than a minute.

"What was that!?" I would swear later that Lisbeth had stars in her eyes.

"Flash Step." I replied, "As f-far as I know it's a unique skill you unlock when your agility is high enough. I haven't seen anyone else use it, so it might be tied to my claws. Anyways, it allows me to basically teleport around short distances by straining my body to move extremely fast."

"Wow..." Lisbeth said in reply.

"Look out!" I blocked a bugbear's spear that was about to stab through her back, "We really should talk later when there aren't things trying to kill us!"

"R-right."

Lisbeth and I grinded experience for several hours till we went back to town at nightfall. She had already gained a level due to how fast the mobs were being killed. I knew her pace would slow down soon due to SAO's system that started reducing the exp of monsters once you had killed a certain amount. Still though, it was encouraging. The very last thing we did was get her some new equipment and get my drake leather armor repaired. Everything was right in the world for the first time in a long while. I went to sleep with no worries plaguing my mind.

* * *

Yeah I wasn't actually going to leave Lisbeth dead. I would feel like garbage. She'd never deserve that. In the end I had to decided between either her or Aurain dieing. I decided on Lisbeth in the end to make her character less of a damsel in distress than she had been so far. On the subject of Aurain's stats, he has exceedingly high agility, slightly below average strength (for his level) and normal health/defense, and low in everything else.

-Forscythe


	8. Chapter 8

Talking

___Thinking_

Thanks to Panthour, RomanceDagger, and Azahra for their reviews.

I don't own SAO, but you knew that already. I also don't own the tiny line of Lord of the Rings I put in the story.

* * *

Chapter VIII: The Front Lines

* * *

Even though I had agreed to continue on the front lines, I still wanted to buy a home. I was getting kind of sick of staying in random inns for two years straight. So one day, when Lisbeth and I were both sick of murdering bugbears, I went off house hunting. Algade was the place I'd already settled on when I first brought up the issue, mostly since I already had a lot of friends that lived there. Lisbeth insisted that I come live in her shop on the 48th floor, but it was already pretty cramped and I didn't want to impose. I got a glare for refusing, but nothing else came out of it. It scared me more when she stayed quiet instead of arguing. It made me think that she had something planned.

I locked the door on my week old house. It was located in the upper district of Algade, away from a lot of the dirtier slums there. I didn't want to have to deal with some of the more irritating NPCs (like the ones that could actually steal your Col and items) and the houses here were a lot nicer if a bit pricey. Mine had one big bedroom with a queen sized bed and a bathroom for some reason. It wasn't like you could even use a bathroom in SAO. I guessed it was for looks, though everything was functional, bath and all. I would have to try it at some point. The place also had a kitchen and a small living room, but I wasn't sure what I'd ever use the kitchen for. My cooking skill had never even been look at, since I'd been focused on survival from the start of SAO.

I heard a knock.

I stumbled out of my bedroom, only half-dressed in my leather armor. I was just about to hit the sack after all. I wondered who would be calling so late. I opened the door to see Klein standing there about to knock again

"Don't you think its a bit late?" I grumbled.

"Sorry." Klein smiled apologetically.

"What's up?" I yawned.

"I know you've said no a thousand times." Klein said, a pleading look on his face "But I'm gonna ask again. Would you join Fūrinkazan?"

I stood there for a long while looking at Klein before sighing and opening my mouth, "You k-know what. Sure. I'd love to join you guys."

"Wha? Really? Great!" Klein's grin grew wider than I'd ever seen before, "I'll send you an invite when I get back to the headquarters."

"So humor me," I sat down on my front step, the cold stone slightly uncomfortable since I was only wearing boxers, "Why ask again?"

Klein's face turned even more tired than it had last week, "I saw another player die again last week. That was when I realized again anyone of my friends could die at any time if they're on the front lines. It'd be good for you and the rest of the guild if we all partied together. I don't want anyone else to die if I can't help it."

"R-Right." I replied, remembering the deaths I had seen in my time in SAO. Lisbeth was almost one of them.

"You know," Klein looked up at the sky, "I feel pretty fortunate though. SAO's claimed almost 4000 people already and we're just now exploring the 74th floor."

"Mhmm." I joined him in staring at the stars, "Despite everything I feel fortunate for meeting you guys. Never had better friends in my entire life. It's g-gonna suck when I wake up in America again."

"Maybe you could convince your parents to move to Japan." Klein laughed, "It's quite nice over here this time of year."

We both began laughing uproariously at his stupid joke. I wasn't even sure why at the time. It was amazing how much had changed. I never would have chosen to willingly join a group of people just to talk or joke with them before SAO.

___"Guess I can't be too angry with Kayaba._"I got to my feet and brushed off my butt, "Hey Klein can Lis-?"

"I already asked Lisbeth to join before coming to ask you." Klein smirked at me, "She said she would if you did."

Something beeped in my head making me jump.

Klein answered me before I could even ask, "I sent a direct message to you that'll be on your Nerve Gear when you get out. It's the address of Agil's store in the real world. That way if you can make it over to Japan you'll know where to find me and the guild, as well as the rest of your friends in SAO. We're planning a party as soon as we can after SAO is cleared."

"Thanks Klein. For everything."

"Don't mention it." the man clapped me on the shoulder and headed down the street.

* * *

People really liked knocking at my door when I was trying to get some rest. This time it was Lisbeth. She was carrying a giant storage bag for some reason. What was she carrying that her massive weight capacity couldn't handle?

I yawned, "What is it Liz?"

"I've decided I want to move in with you."

"What." I stared at her blankly. I already said no her about staying at her place. I KNEW she had something up her sleeve

"I already sold my house/shop down on the 48th floor," Lisbeth brushed past me, "And I finalized a deal on a small blacksmiths near here."

"Fine." Lisbeth brightened at my assent, "But only till you can get your own place."

"Awwwwww." She engaged puppy dog eyes mode, "Why not?"

"B-because," I felt a blush creeping up into my cheeks, damn her for being cute, "It just doesn't feel proper."

"Hmmm..." Lisbeth tapped her chin, before she started grinning evilily

"W-what?" I took a step back from my girlfriend, who took a step forward in return.

"If you let me stay~" She kept coming closer and I kept backing up until I hit the counter behind me, "I'll make sure to do this daily~"

She wrapped her arms around the back of my neck and pulled me into a deep kiss. Way deeper than she had ever pulled me into in the past. Oh was that her tongue? Oh wow. I was suddenly very okay with her staying in my new house.

* * *

The very next day Lisbeth and I met up with the rest of Fūrinkazan. Together with them we make a complete party of eight people. It'd been about a month or so since the incident with Laughing Coffin and Lisbeth was in the low 80s, perfect for joining up with us on the front lines. She wasn't as high of a level as she could've been, but her high health and strength were perfect for party play. We immediately paired off into switch pairs, and headed off into the snow-covered forest. Lisbeth was with me, and clanked somewhat loudly behind me with her heavy armor that was a sort of metal plate that covered portions of her normal dress and apron. In her right hand, she wielded a massive mace that I wondered if my strength stat would even allow me to pick up.

"Meteor Crush!" Lisbeth switched with me and smashed her now flaming mace into a Lizardman Warrior's skull, sending it crashing into the ground. It let out a brief cry of pain before exploding into crystals and dissolving into nothing.

"Nice." I high fived her. That was the last Lizardman Warrior in the area. Grinding with a big group was definitely more efficient at these higher floors. I wasn't able to move nearly as fast, but it was a lot less taxing and dangerous. Especially with the crazy patterns the enemies were starting to exhibit. I would have loved it if my life wasn't on the line.

"Whew," Lisbeth wiped sweat off of her brow, before voicing my exact thoughts, "These enemies are so much more complicated than those bugbears we grinded off for weeks."

"Yeah. It makes sense from a game standpoint. The game's supposed to get harder as we climb higher." I followed after Klein who was waving at me and Lisbeth to follow him. We were going back to a safe area to rest. Grinding in cycles with rest every few cycles was safe and efficient.

I handed Lisbeth a water bottle ,sat down on a large rock in the safe area, and wrapped my hooded cloak around me. Floor 74 was cold, even more so than the earlier snowy floors. I wondered briefly if it was due to us being so high in the floating "castle" of Aincrad. I took a sip of the water, enjoying the taste and the surge of energy from the water lessening my fatigue. It was mineral water from a spring on floor 56, and was very good for lowering the fatigue that built up while grinding. The good taste was never a bad thing either.

I looked up to the sun to see it setting. Darn. Guess we weren't going to map as much of the floor as Klein wanted to today. That's fine I suppose. Despite my motivation to clear the game, there was still a long way to go, and no point in risking lives to go faster.

"Alright guys." Klein stretched, "Time to head back to headquarters."

Everyone activated their teleport crystals and headed to the 50th floor where Fūrinkazan's headquarters were located. It seemed like almost everyone I was acquainted with lived there. That was the reason I picked the 50th floor as my home. The only exceptions were Asuna and Argo, though to be honest I never knew where Argo was. She had stopped living in her old house and just sort of wandered collecting information and selling it.

I took my off armor, leaving myself in a pair of shorts and a loose long-sleeve shirt and flopped down in a chair at the guild's table. Klein quickly distributed the loot for the day and everyone went on their everyday routine. That's probably one of the things I loved most. Nobody in the guild complained about the loot distribution. They never complained because they implicitly trusted Klein to be fair, which he was. Three of the guild members stayed behind to play chess and talk for a while, but Lisbeth and I headed back to my home. It had been a long day, and I was itching to sit in front of my fireplace in that cushy armchair I bought and read a book.

The books I found were amazing because they were actual books from the real world. I had found the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy which was an amazing classic. I half wondered how much Kayaba had to pay for the rights, or if he just stole it. Either way I wasn't complaining.

That was one of the things I had somehow just now discovered. SAO had bookstores with real well written novels to buy. I immediately bought an entire armful and had carried them back to my place a few days ago. I was working through them in my free time after grinding sessions. The activity was something that felt weirdly... normal compared to the usual routine. I used to do it all the time back home.

"So whatcha reading this time?" Lisbeth squeezed into the armchair next to me, though she ended up more on my lap than anything. It wasn't really designed for two people.

I wrapped an arm around her and kept on reading, "Lord of the Rings. It's a fantasy novel from the 1900s written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's really famous and it's still popular to this day."

"What's it about?"

"Well..." I grinned, "The abridged version is that a bunch of midgets save the world."

"And the actual plot?" Lisbeth rolled her eyes.

"Well I could read it out loud to you if you want." I replied, "I haven't gotten far."

"Okay." Lisbeth laid her head on my shoulder, the tips of her hair tickling my nose, "I wouldn't mind."

"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly..." I began reading the hefty book.

I was so engrossed in the book, I didn't notice Lisbeth softly snoring until she probably had been for quite some time. Oh well. I was going to have to catch her up on the book over dinner tomorrow or something. I ran my fingers through her pink hair, briefly wondering what color her hair was in real life.

"___Guess I'll find out when I make it over to Japan or if we video chat at some point."_ I wiggled out from under her, picked up the Japanese girl, walked into the bedroom, and gently laid her in the bed before slipping into the sheets on the other side.

"I just realized that if the days kept going on like this I wouldn't mind." I mumbled to myself, "Wonder if that's what Kayaba was aiming for. Creating a virtual environment that people would learn to accept as a sort of home. I can't think like that though, I've got to keep moving forward with Lisbeth, Klein, and the rest of Fūrinkazan to clear the game."

* * *

I think the roughest part of writing Aurain lately is establishing his personality past being quiet and shy now that he's slowly moving away from that. I'm trying to write him as kind, humble, and with a slight hero complex due to the kindness more than anything. Also this chapter was really different from how I usually write. I'm not entirely sure why it turned out this way. Not to mention I finished two chapters in one day. Weird. I think I'll try to get one chapter up a day for the rest of this week. On one last side note, I think some of you will like the next chapter. It happens to be a flashback of when Lisbeth and Aurain meet.

-Forscythe


	9. Chapter 9

Talking

_Thinking_

It's amazing how anytime I say I'm going to update semi-regularly it crashes and burns. I lost motivation and ended reading Cardcaptor fanfiction for hours. Thanks to the three fellows that reviewed. Always appreciative.

I don't own SAO, but you knew that already.

* * *

Chapter IX: Nighttime Thoughts

* * *

Somedays I laid in bed and just thought about life lately. It had become a habit lately. Today I wasn't able to help thinking about Lisbeth and I's first meeting. I wasn't entirely sure why. I was always having my mind wander lately, with or without my permission.

* * *

I sighed. No offense to the NPC blacksmiths, but I could never have trusted them to enhance my Peerless Edge any higher than the +3 it was at now. +3 was the magic number where NPCs could enhance to without failing, and from my MMO experience the NPCs would probably end up breaking it before it could get any higher than around +6 or so. I wasn't able to afford to lose such a powerful sword. I'd picked it up from the final attack bonus on floor three's boss.

"Is that a Peerless Edge!?" an excited female voice entered my ears. Oh no. She wasn't talking about me was she?

Pink entered my vision. Not just the girl's dress either, which had an white apron over it. Her hair was pink. Even her eyes were a dark shade of pinkish-purple.

"Well is it?" I sweared her eyes were shining.

"Y-yes."

"Do you need it enhanced?" Lisbeth grabbed my free hand with her own hands, "I'll do it for free if you want!"

"Y-you're a blacksmith?" I looked the girl over, _"Girls this pretty don't go into blacksmithing even if they play MMOs right?"_

the girl in question scowled at me, "Yes, I am a blacksmith, and I happen to very proud of the fact thank you very much."

"A-ah I d-didn't mean anything like that," I started shaking a bit. My nerves were fried, "I'll be going now!" _I haven't had to interact with anyone besides boss raids. I can't do this, I can't. Can't this girl just go away!"_

I dashed away from the girl, slowly feeling a sense of dread growing.

"Ugh!" the girl shouted angrily behind me "Who rejects a free blacksmith job!? I'll show you I'm more than worth it!"

"_Oh no." _I looked back to see her chasing me, "_YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"_

"Get back here!" I heard her shout, and felt a hand brush the back of my cloak, "Nobody insults my blacksmithing ability and gets away with it!"

"I n-never said anything like that!" I rounded a corner and found myself in a dead end, "_Oh no..."_

The girl appeared in the front of the alley, panting and red-faced. Gradually she drew closer and closer until our bodies were practically touching. She began to poke me in the chest with a vengeance.

"You. Will. Come. With. Me." She glared at me with a fury, "And. You. Will. Let. Me. Enhance. Your. Sword. For. Free."

"Y-yes ma'am." I was on the verge of passing out from my nerves at this point. A girl in this kind of proximity with me this angry wasn't good for my fragile constitution.

* * *

"S-so why are you doing this for free?" I worked up the courage to ask. I felt incredibly small in my wooden chair watching the slim girl hammering away vigorously at my Peerless Edge.

"Reputation." She held up the sword and looked at it briefly, "I'm trying to build it up by working on a variety of weapons. I'd heard about your weapon and how rare it was, and I HAD to get my hands on one. It's +10 now. That's what you wanted right?"

"Y-yeah." I took the sword from her meekly, "I'll be g-going then."

I turned to leave and found that the girl had moved in front of me and was rapidly getting closer.

"What's your deal?" the girl raised an eyebrow at me and cocked her head to the side, "Are you afraid of me or something?"

"Oh n-nothing l-like that I assure y-you m-miss." I stammered, waving my arms in front of me in denial.

"Really." her eyebrow disappeared into her hairline, and she looked at me like I was crazy. She was the crazy one!

"R-really."

"If you say so." She turned around and stomped into the back of her shop.

"_Did I do something to make her mad?_" I shrugged tiredly and went to leave the room, "_It's not like I meant to. She's really weird..."_

Suddenly a soft crying filled my ears. _Did I make her do that? Oh I'm going to regret what I'm about to do._ I headed back into her workroom and walked up to the back room and lightly knocked before cracking open the door and slipping in. As it turned out, this was Lisbeth's bedroom, and the girl in question was staring at me with bleary eyes from her seat on her bed.

"What do you want?" She sniffed, "Come back to tell me how scary I am?"

"I n-nev-"I sighed and shoved my nervousness down as far as I could. It wasn't very far, "L-look. I'm not s-scared of you in particular. Well maybe a little since you chased me across town, but its p-people in general I'm not r-really c-comfortable hanging around. Especially girls."

"Why join a VRMMORPG then?"

"I d-didn't realize it'd be so realistic." I blushed.

"Awwwww." the girl suddenly wrapped her arms around me and giggled, "You're so CUTE when you're embarrased."

I promptly passed out from the blood running to my head.

* * *

_ "To think I'd end up in love with the crazy girl who had obsessively chased me wanting to enhance my weapon. I must be just as crazy as she was that day." _I sighed and brushed a strand of Lisbeth's hair behind her ear. "_Wonder when I started feeling like this. Probably around the same time I saved her from that massive Hulking Lizard that one day on floor 18_

* * *

I was out gathering materials for an a quest on floor 22 on floor 18 when I heard a loud female scream. It was coming from...oh no. It was coming from the direction where a high leveled mob spawned. It was a Hulking Drake which was basically as strong as the floor boss that was on floor 15  
I rushed off in the direction of the cave where it spawned. I knew where it was from having killed it with Klein and Fūrinkazan a week or two ago. Fūrinkazan and I went after it because the leather it dropped was key to higher tier leather armor. I got it to use for myself, while most of Fūrinkazan just sold it for an absurd amount of Col at the time. I hoped I would get there in time.

A flash of pink alerted me, before a girl plowed into me. Wait a second was this crazy blacksmith girl from a few weeks ago the one who screamed? The massive shape of the Hulking Drake all but confirmed that as it came crashing around the same corner the girl had come running from. It stopped in front if us and roared menacingly.

"L-Listen," I pushed the girl behind me, her health bar was already in the red, "When I t-tell you I want you to run as fast as you can."

The girl nodded and crawled behind me. I stood to face the massive lizard, looking way braver than I felt. I could just run away. I was fast enough to do it. It was what I used to do. For good or for bad, something about the people I'd met in Sword Art Online fired up some stupid sense of bravery inside me. I hadn't really been the same since Klein saved my life. I used to have the mindset that as long as I was fine, to hell with the rest of the players.

_"Not anymore though._" I summoned my current long sword, a +15 Divine Defender, and spread my feet apart, "_I've got to try to protect everyone that I can... Oh geez that sounded cheesy."_

_ "_RUN NOW!" I lunged forward and launched into a Sonic Leap, slamming the drake's head into the ground. It seemed barely fazed. Why was I playing hero again? Oh right the cute pink-haired girl I was trying to save. Wait cute? When the hell did I start calling crazy girls that frightened me cute?

The drake threw me off with a mighty roar and intercepted me midair with its claw. I was sent flying into the side of a wall.

"_OK that one hurt," _I picked myself up off the ground, _"I can't imagine how much that'd suck in real life. Come to think of it, I'd probably be a bloody stain on the wall. Okay brain you can stop thinking about that line of thought now."_

_ "_Alright ugly." why did I feel the stupid urge to spew insults at things when scared shitless, "Bring it on."

I ducked under its answering claw and triggered a Horizontal sword skill. I drug my sword along its side and skidded to a halt a couple of feet past it. The monster roared in pain, and turned to charge me with its jaw wide open. My eyes widened in terror, and I just barely overcame the system's sluggishness to dive out of the way.

The monster turned quickly in a display of ridiculous agility for something its size, and I was forced to use my next sword skill activating a parry and shoving my sword into its jaw to hold it back. I thanked my lucky stars and garters that its arms were like a T-Rex's or I would have been torn apart already. As it was, my low strength stat was beginning to fail me, and I knew any minute it would tear past my guard.

* * *

"_Luckily Klein and his guild showed up a few moments later. They were apparently coming back for more leather to sell."_ I sweat dropped remembering how close it had been to that drake biting my arm off, "_Later that day Lisbeth added me to her friends list after thanking me profusely. She insisted on it. I'm glad she did."_

Suddenly Lisbeth rolled over very close to me, her leg falling over mine and her hands clutching the side of my nightshirt. She spoke softly in her sleep, "mhfmmm never leave me Aurain... not like daddy."

Even though I knew she probably couldn't hear me in my sleep I replied anyways, "Never Lisbeth. Not if I can help it. _Did her dad divorce her mum or something?_"

* * *

Eh sorry this is a tad short. It's a bit of an interlude chapter.

-Forscythe


	10. Chapter 10

Talking

_Thinking_

It's amazing how anytime I say I'm going to update semi-regularly it crashes and burns. This chapter went through far too many rewrites, and I still don't love it. Bleh. I hope dearly that the next chapter won't take me so long. I don't even know if I remembered to respond to reviews or not...

I don't own SAO, but you knew that already.

* * *

Chapter X: Revelations

* * *

While some things do end up changing, the more things don't change. Or something like that. I tended to forget how that saying goes. Even after nearly two years in this death game, people still made stupid mistakes. Guess it was human nature at its worst.

"Switch!" I rolled out of the way of the Gleam Eyes' massive sword and let Lisbeth deflect it with her mace. It was our job along with Klein and Asuna to keep the damn thing distracted while the rest of Fūrinkazan dragged out the members of the Army that were foolish enough to enter the boss room with small numbers. Not to mention how exhausted they had been when Kirito was forced to give them the map data to stop unnecessary bloodshed.

It all started this morning when Lisbeth and I were doing the habitual mapping of the 74th floor along with the rest of the guild. We had run into Kirito and Asuna while the two of them were briefly resting. We made a little bit of small talk with them as we had decided to take a break as well. That was when Kirito and I froze up in unison and told everyone to be on their guard. From out of the trees came the army members, who as I said demanded our map data or they would violently take it from us. Not in those exact words of course, but everyone knew exactly what they meant. But back to the present.

I still wondered what exactly Kirito wanted us to stall for, but like Klein had said, we just had to trust the guy. Kirito hadn't let me down yet, even if he was always a little short with me when we talked.

I deflected the sword to the side with my newly acquired shield. Lisbeth bopped me over the head the other day when I said I didn't need one. My weak excuse was that Kirito didn't need one and neither did I.

"MOVE!" a black streak soared past me... wielding two swords!?

Kirito began whaling on the boss with some crazy long sword skill. I wasn't even sure of the amount of hits he managed to land before the Gleam Eyes sent him flying back in Klein, who caught him.

Kirito growled in an inhuman way and launched himself at the boss, both their health meters dropping at seemingly the same rate. No one dared to get between the two, afraid that their actions would only hurt Kirito who was attacking like a madman. One thing I did learn from my past MMO experience with real time MMOs where you could dodge, it was much easier to solo a boss than duo it. The boss wouldn't be random and would focus on you allowing for an easier fight. Unfortunately with the lag in between skills this usually caused the player to die before he/she could kill the boss.

Luckily this wasn't the case with Kirito.

My comrade (couldn't really call him a friend yet) managed to finish off the boss with only a tiny sliver of his hp left. Asuna rushed forward in a panic and immediately force fed him an hp potion. At first I wondered why she didn't just use a crystal, but then I remembered this was a no crystal zone.

"Whew." I sat down on the floor hard, Lisbeth soon joined me, her head leaning on my shoulder, "Never want to do that again."

"Agreed." Lisbeth panted in exhaustion, "I just want to go back to our house and sleep for a few days."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

I heard a loud, frantic knock at the door. I groaned and pushed Lisbeth off me, who pouted with disappointment at having our kissing interrupted. The feeling was mutual. I trudged over to the door and opened it, trying to put somewhat of a smile on my face. I failed miserably. I had just finished with that nail biter of a boss fight and I just wanted to relax.

"Hey." It was Kirito, who was looking around frantically as if afraid of something, "Could I stay here for a few days? Klein and Agil were both out, and I NEED somewhere to hide."

"Er okay I guess." I gestured for him to come in, "Did you tick off Asuna or something?"

"No." Kirito looked at me like I was crazy, "You know how people saw me use the two swords unique skill right?"

"Yeah."

"People have been hounding me day and night about how to get it," Kirito flopped down on the left side of the couch, and I sat down next to him "I keep telling them I don't know, but people won't leave the issue alone."

"Hopefully this doesn't bring back the whole beater argument." Lisbeth handed Kirito and I cups of hot chocolate and squeezed in next to me.

"Yeah." I stared at the fire, "_Wonder if the same thing would happen if I used my claws in a boss fight. It's inevitable soon. The floors keep getting harder and harder. I don't want people to die __like those Army members. Hell I just feel selfish at this point._ Liz?_"_

"Hm?" She looked up at me, "What is it?"

"Am I selfish for not using my unique skill yet to help in boss battles?" Kirito's head whipped towards me and he looked bewildered, "Oh right, Kirito doesn't know about it."

I dislodged myself from the couch and stood to my feet. I opened my inventory and equipped the claws.

"This is the unique weapon I got from Kayaba for being 'interesting'" I joked, "It's more of a burden than anything else. I'm too damn scared to use them for anything useful."

"Yeah." Kirito seemed to be deep in though, "I know that feeling. The only reason I used the my skill was to save anyone else from dieing on the Gleam Eyes. Watching the Army members die was painful."

"It's been a long time since I've seen anybody die personally." I sat back down and took a sip of the hot chocolate, "When was the last time?"

"The 67th floor." Kirito replied dully, "It's been seven floors since we've lost party members to a boss."

"Damn..." I stared down into my half empty cup, "What scares me is the 75th floor."

"The 75th floor?" Lisbeth rested her head on my shoulder

Kirito answered for me, "Every 25 floors is an incredibly difficult boss. Floor 25 and Floor 50 claimed more lives that I like to remember."

Silence filled the small living room. Thoughts of those who had died prevented any of us from talking for the longest time. Finally, I decided to speak up since my eyelids were threatening to close at any second.

"You can have the couch Kirito. Stay as long as you need to." I gently pushed Lisbeth's head off my shoulder and picked up her still sleeping body, "I don't really have a spare bed to offer you. I'd offer you my bed, but Lisbeth and I sorta share it since she wouldn't let me sleep on the couch and I couldn't let her sleep on it either."

"I understand." Kirito replied, "Thanks Aurain. I think I'm finally starting to get why you and Klein are friends."

"Huh?"

"You're incredibly kind." Kirito grinned at me, "You didn't even hesistate letting me stay here."

"I-it's not that b-big of deal," My face heated up and I buried it in Lisbeth's fluffy pink hair, "Y-yeesh."

` Kirito just laughed and flopped himself down on the couch.

I sighed, "There's spare blankets in pillows in the closet over there if you need them."

"Right." Kirito yawned, "Thanks again."

"You're welcome." I carried the girl back to our shared bed, laid her down, and promptly passed out.

* * *

"Lisbeth?"

"Hmm?" The girl donned her usual outfit, replacing her Pj's with it.

"I'd like to go to the starting city today if you want to come along."

"What for?" Lisbeth sat down on the bed next to me.

"I...I want to check the stone where everyone's name is listed," I replied.

"What for?" She tilted her head in confusion

"I want to see if PoH's name is on it," I confessed, "I can't help but think that he's still alive, and I just want to confirm that he's actually dead so I never have to worry about it again."

"Is that what you've been having nightmares about? Alright, we'll leave right after breakfast." Lisbeth replied softly, before almost falling off the bed due to the sound of someone pounding on the front door for the second day in a row.

I mumbled profanities under my breath and went to go answer the door. To my great surprise, none other than Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of Blood.

"Is Kirito there?"

"Depends." I didn't budge an inch, "_How the hell does he know Kirito's here? _What do you want with him?"

"Just to talk," Heathcliff held up his hands non-threateningly. I still didn't budge an inch. Something about him always bugged me.

"It's fine Aurain, I've got no problem talking with Heathcliff." I stepped to the side at Kirito's words and let the man walk inside the house. Why was his voice so familiar? I hadn't really heard him before aside from ordering orders during raids, but his calm voice sounded so eerily familar. That was why I was so abnormally defensive. His voice definitely reminded me of something I hated.

"So what do you want Heathcliff?" Kirito crossed his arms and stared up at the much taller man, "I already told you a thousand times that I won't join the Knights of Blood."

"I want a duel." Heathcliff replied bluntly, "Asuna wants to leave the guild, and I told her that if you beat me in a duel that she would be allowed to. I can't just let my vice-chief walk away as easy as 1,2,3."

"What's the catch?" Kirito asked suspiciously, glaring up at the man, "I can't believe you'd want to duel me without anything in for yourself.

The two of them looked heatedly at each other for a few moments, neither of them refusing to back down. I mentally prepared to step in if it got ugly. I didn't need Kirito entering some sort of death duel.

"If you lose, you'll join the Knights of Blood." Heathcliff shrugged, "It's a fair trade. Either I lose a member or gain a member."

Kirito stared at Heathcliff for a long while, and I could almost feel the mental battle within. Finally he responded, quicker than I had imagined he would.

"I accept."

* * *

The arena Heathcliff had chosen to hold the duel was filled to the brim with loudly cheering people. I began to really feel uncomfortable being that close to so many loudly cheering people. I wondered briefly if he had publicized the event before gripping Lisbeth's hand tighter and subconsciously moving closer to her. She squeezed back reassuringly and began to run a thumb gently over the back of my hand

"Y-you know I k-know I promised Kirito I'd come and cheer him on..." I spoke softly, "But I didn't expect such a crowd."

"I'm sorry." She replied, "Just try to focus on me for now, and when they start up you can focus on the fight."

"R-Right." I nodded my head.

Finally Klein and the rest arrived. By the rest I mean Asuna, Agil, some small girl I didn't know, and the rest of my guild. The small girl introduced herself rather bubbly as Silica. I shook her hand, trying my best not to stutter in my greeting. She was very friendly which helped balance out how aggressively loud my first impressions of here were.. Introductions were interrupted as the roar of the crowd grew even louder as Kirito and Heathcliff came into the arena and face each other.

The pair faced each other down, tapped a few buttons on their interfaces, and began circling each other. They eached seemed to be daring each other to make the first move. Finally, Kirito lunged forward with a roar, and the fight began. It was even for a while, but with a closer glance I began to notice something odd. Kirito was landing some really hard hits. Those alone should've been lowering Heathcliff's hp.

"Hey Liz." I muttered, "Does Heathcliff's special skill really make him invincible?"

"Supposedly as long as no one gets past his shield."

"Hmm... seems kinda OP." I rubbed my chin and watched the battle carefully. My nervousness from the crowd temporarily forgotten in my new-found focus on the fight. Something was up. I felt it deep in my body.

Suddenly Kirito seemed to slip past Heathcliff's guard, and was about to land a blow. At least that was how it seemed to my eyes. Or maybe it was just an illusion, because in the next instant, Heathcliff's shield was once again in the path of Kirito blades. He swiftly blocked the blow and stabbed his own sword into Kirito's stomach with an inhuman movement.

"Did anyone else see that..." I rubbed the top of my head in confusion, "I could have sworn Kirito made it past Heathcliff's guard."

"Must've been your imagination." Klein sighed, "Can't believe ol' Kirito lost. Ah well. Hopefully he won't be too mopey."

"Yeah..." I let Lisbeth take my hand and drag me towards where Kirito was so we could try to cheer him up. I vowed in my head that I was gonna get to the bottom of this one. No way I had hallucinated that one up. I was gonna need to get on that after I finished up with my business in the starting city.

* * *

The starting city wasn't exactly the homliest place these days. It look like a city during wartime in one of those old movies my dad used to sit down with me and watch. There were players everywhere running around in basic plate armor, carrying a spear and shield. It was the basic setup for a tank in this game, and the easiest way to survive. I gave the Army credit for that much, but not much else.

"Name and guild?"

"Aurain. Fūrinkazan." I spoke slowly to prevent a stutter. Despite my average stature, I wanted to appear as tough as possible, "My friend is Lisbeth. She's in the same guild as me."

"Right." the man nodded and stepped aside, "Welcome to the starting city. Don't try anything funny."

I walked past the man and immediately let out the breath I was holding in.

"S-sheesh. Do they have to be so intimidating?" I tried to stop the shaking my body had started.

Lisbeth giggled, "Aw... I thought you handled yourself well if it counts for anything. Don't worry about it. I think you're plenty brave."

She then kissed me on the cheek, sending a familiar warmth surging through my body.

"R-right. Let's just look at the stone and get out of here."

I should have just trusted that PoH was dead instead of confirming it. But I had to. There was no way I'd be able to sleep without knowing the truth. Unfortunately, his name stood on the stone completely unmarked. An emotion filled my body. I wasn't sure if it was rage, fear, or something else. I didn't really care at the time. I just started venting, which was kinda unusual behavior for me.

"How Liz." I finally found my voice, "How DAMMIT!"

My entire body trembled angrily. I had seen him fall off the cliff. Fall damage in this game was brutal. The bastard must have caught himself somehow and somehow gotten himself to safety.

Lisbeth sighed and looked down at me directly into my eyes. With a small smile, she gently tugged me away from the stone that I was just about to start pummeling. She sat me down on one of the benches and kept trying to get my attention. To my shame today, I just kept simmering in my own anger, and completely ignored her. That was when she huffed angrily, jumped into my lap, and stared at me straight in the eyes.

"Look Ryan." Lisbeth used my real name and grabbed me by the sides of my face, "So what if he's alive? You'll protect everyone if he shows up again right?"

"R-right." I sighed and finally let myself relax, "Sorry for getting so wound up Rika."

"No biggie!" She hopped out of lap and spun around sending her skirts fluttering slightly, "You want to go and get some lunch a few floors up to take our minds of it?"

"Sure." I smiled and let her tug me by the hand to the nearest teleport gate. Something told me everything was going to be all right, even if I had a thousand worries on my mind. After all Rika was still with me, and as long as I had her, I felt like nothing could send my world crashing down.

* * *

Well this annoying thing is done. I'm glad to be moving on from this chapter. So very very glad. Major editing done since original upload.

Oh yeah, and a shoutout goes out to Tensei Kano for his shoutout. Shoutoutception.

-Forscythe


	11. Chapter 11

Talking

_Thinking_

Well it's almost been two months. Sorry about that. I just want my chapters to not be... rushed like the last one, which has been edited and re-uploaded. Which speaking of, this chapter may not make 100% sense without reading the new version of the last chapter. I added a small, important detail (STRONGLY RECOMMENDED). Which brings me to reason number two for the delay. I actually had this entire chapter written, but ended up making that chapter the chapter 1-3 chapters from now. Dunno if that makes sense. Oh and one last thing. Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. Especially Tensei's with the little bit of a reminder that I'm slacking like a lazy writer.

Own SAO I do not. Obvious that should be.

* * *

Chapter XI: Stupid Descisons

* * *

'Dear Lisbeth' I typed into the messenger window, 'I'm gonna be off doing something by myself today. I'll be back later tonight. Don't worry about me. Not doing anything dangerous'

I decided after Kirito's duel that there were two things that I needed to do. One was discover what exactly was going on with Heathcliff, and two was finding PoH. Seeing as I didn't really have anyway of even knowing what floor PoH was on. I decided that investigating Heathcliff was of immediate concern.

"When did I get so curious?" I sighed and threw on my newest set of armor that I had recently enhanced every piece to +20, "I used to just leave everything alone. Must be Liz. I can hardly sleep at night if I think somethings going to hurt her. Yeesh."

I took a step out into the fresh air and shook my head to clear it out. The sun was just barely coming over the horizon, and the sky was a murky purple color.

'_Off to floor to fifty-five? Think that's right.'_ I scratched my head, trying to think up the exact location of the Knights of the Blood's headquarters. Eventually I shrugged and headed to the teleport gate. If it wasn't I could always message Kirito and ask. I snickered to myself remembering the first time I saw Kirito in his new uniform. He looked like a wet cat with how unhappy he was.

'_How to even confront Heathcliff about this? I don't even know if he's a straight up hacker, or if he somehow grabbed GM privledges. Either way, why hasn't he found a way to release us from the game if he's found so much of an exploit?'_

I sighed and stepped out into floor fifty-five. As soon as the light of teleportation disappeared, a cold wind blasted me in the face, causing me to wrap my trademark hooded cloak around my body (people did tend to identify me with that these days. I was making an unwilling name for myself for my absurdly high speed and sneakiness). Why did Grandum have to be so cold? I pulled the cloak as close as I could and started searching for Heathcliff's headquarters.

'_The faster I get there the fast I can get out of this wind.'_

It didn't take me long thankfully. If it had, I might have frozen my fingers off. The building was massive, and stood out from the rest of the city metallic looking structures. This was especially so because of the massive flags bearing the guild's symbol adorning the wall surrounding the compound.

"Faaaaaaannncy." I muttered under my breath and approached the two guards out front, "Excuse me?"

"What do you want kid?" the man grumbled back in response.

"I'd l-like to meet Heathcliff. Is he in?" I took it slow, trying my hardest not to stammer. It wasn't nearly as hard when it was only a few people. I had gotten much better over the last two years. Normally I would've turned into a puddle talking to two armored men as intimidating as these two. I needed to look as confident as my subconcious would let me

"Awfully twitchy for a guy around your age," The man looked me up and down, "Especially for how tall you are."

"I g-get that a lot." I mentally rolled my eyes. It wasn't my fault I had a hard time feeling comfortable around people and being really tall. Honest.

"Well regardless... I'm not letting you inside." the man crossed his arms, "You seem suspicious."

"O-okay." I scratched the back of my head. Suddenly, a shock of grey hair caught my vision. Heathcliff sort of knew me right? Maybe if I asked him directly he would let me in, "H-hey Heathcliff sir!"

Luckily it was actually Heathcliff, and he turned around to face me. A look of recognition passed over his face, and he approached the gate with a neutral look on his face, _'Guess he doesn't know what to think of me.'_

"Hmmm..." He looked over the guards' shoulders at me, "Aurain right? You were the guy Kirito was staying with."

"Y-yeah. There was something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you mind if we go somewhere private?"

Heathcliff stared at me for a few moments, a variety of emotion crossing over his face. Finally, his face softened and he nodded in agreement. The guards tried to weakly discourage him, but Heathcliff waved them off with a hand. He beckoned to me, and I followed him into the base. I shouldn't have felt more nervous by the second, but I did. Going deeper in the guild's HQ felt like a bad idea with each passing second.

* * *

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Heathcliff spoke to me with a tone filled with

caution.

"I g-guess I'll get straight to it." the way he was speaking unnerved me. He sounded very threatening, almost like he knew what I was here to ask.

"Go ahead then."

I gulped and tried to find my voice. I was finding it harder by the second not to just bolt out of the room and run and run and never stop.

"R-right." I forced out, "I'd l-like to know what your deal is. Are you a s-straight up hacker, or did you somehow g-give yourself GM priveldges? Either way, why haven't you r-released everyone from the game yet?"

"What makes you think I'm either of those things?" Heathcliff asked

I gulped again, "I saw you do something during Kirito's match that no normal player could do. He had you on the ropes, and you broke the laws of the game to win the duel."

"Well." the man sighed and rubbed his temples, "I didn't expect someone to find out before the 75th boss was killed."

"H-huh?" I took a step back

"I did have high expectations for you when I gave you the claws those many months ago, but you'll ruin my grand finale if everyone finds out now."

My heart thudded in my chest. There was no way. He couldn't be. I equipped my sword and held it out, my hands shaking.

"Ah so you see now." the man grinned wildly, "I am Kayaba Akihiko, and I'm afraid you're not allowed to reveal that to anyone else."

"H-how are you going to stop me? Kill me?" I took a step backward and prepared to make a break for it.

"Oh no I'm not a killer. I'll do it like this."

The man opened an interface, and before I could do the same to grab a blue crystal, I felt my body bind up. Kayaba's finger rapidly moved over the interface, before he stopped and close it with a sigh of contentment. There was now a prison crystal sitting innocently in his hand.

"W-what did you do!?" I struggled futily in my invisible bonds.

"Set your color to orange, sealed your speech program so you won't be able to reveal anything about this, and now I'm preparing to throw you in jail for attempted murder of the leader of The Knights of Blood."

"You bas-" my words were cut off as he activated the crystal, and I found myself in a jail cell, "-tard..."

I fell on my knees and began to cry in frustration.

* * *

Life in a prison wasn't the most pleasant experience. Especially when you spend the entire time being worried sick for all your friends, and kicking yourself mentally about having a terrible plan. What kind of idiot was I to just go up to Heathcliff and confront him in private. That was the worst possible plan I could've come up with, and I effectively laid my own demise out for him to take. I spent the first few hours staring at the bleak walls lost in those thoughts. Thankfully Kirito came to visit very early into my imprisonment, and confirmed that everyone was doing okay when I asked him.

"If it makes you feel any better," Kirito munched on an apple, "Klein and I believe you're innocent. He's gonna come visit later. He's busy with some guild business right now."

"Thanks... oh and Kirito?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep Lisbeth safe." I sighed wearily, "I've gotten myself into this predicament, and I can't do it myself now. Tell Klein to do the same. I'll feel better if one of you guys is with her whenever she leaves town."

"Why the sudden concern?" Kirito let the apple core dissolve in his hand, "Lisbeth is pretty capable these days."

"PoH isn't dead."

"I figured as much."

Kirito's response surprised me. For a moment I just sat there and stared at the swordsman with a blank look in my face.

"You figured as much?"

Kirito replied with a grimace, clearly not enjoying remembering the encounter, "Asuna and I ran into a Laughing Coffin member a few days ago. They're clearly alive and well. And uh speaking of Asuna...we kinda got married the other day."

I choked on the rationed prison water and began rapidly beating my chest.

"You w-what!?"

"We got married." Kirito replied dryly

"But you g-guys weren't even so much as going out when I last talked to you!" I stammered, "How fast did you two move!? I mean I thought the two of you liked each other...but wow."

"It is what it is." Kirito shook his head and grinned at my obvious surprise, "Speaking of relationships, has Lisbeth come to see you yet?"

"No." I replied, sagging a little bit. It was true. I hadn't seen even a strand of her pink hair or her voice since the incident with Heathcliff.

"Wow really?" Kirito frowned deeply, "That seems really unlike her. I would've thought she would've been in here the day you got imprisoned."

"Maybe she thinks I did it." I sagged even deeper in depression, "And doesn't want to see me at all."

"That's absolutely ridiculous you knucklehead."

I looked to my right to see Lisbeth coming down the hallway with a hurt looking, and somewhat angry expression on her face. I gulped and scrambled back for a moment, before realizing that I was in a jail cell and was completely safe. I stopped myself and looked up at the girl that was now crouching next to Kirito.

"Hi." I spoke softly, "I've gotten myself in a mess huh?"

"Yeah."

Lisbeth grabbed my hands through the bars and began stroking the back of them gently. I looked at the ground, now not finding the strength to look her in the face. In the corner of my eye I could see Kirito leaning up against the wall, doing something in his menus. I let my vision sort of glaze over, trying to appreciate the feeling of her hands on mine as long as it would last. It was going to suck when they left. I'd be all alone again. Just like the first fourteen years of my life aside from my parents. Not so bad, now that I thought about it.

'_Man that's depressing.' _I sighed deeply, '_I really should've gotten out more. I probably would've just turned into a sniveling mess if I had though.'_

"What really happened? I heard the official story like everyone else, but I can't believe you'd try to kill Heathcliff." Lisbeth finally found her voice and asked the question I knew was coming.

"I-" the words were stuck in my throat, just as they had been when I tried to explain the situation to Kirito. It looked like Kayaba had kept his word. I wasn't able to say a thing.

"What's wrong?" Lisbeth frowned

I yanked out one of my hands from Lisbeth's and jabbed with one finger rapidly at my throat, shaking my head.

"He can't say for some reason." Kirito supplied, briefly looking up from his menus, "I'm not sure why, but it's probably wrapped up with this whole Heathcliff thing. Our group of friends needs to watch him closely to make sure he doesn't try anything. I barely trusted him after that PvP match, and I trust him even less now."

I nodded my head vigorously in response. Whatever Kayaba did to me tended to lock up my speech for a prolonged time, even if I wasn't planning on saying anything.

My two friends spent a bit longer talking with me, before giving me their goodbyes. They promised to try to find a way to free me, but I didn't keep any hopes up. If Kayaba wanted me to stay in here I was going to stay in here. I was scared of what his big reveal was going to be.

'_Stay safe you guys...' _I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Someone's feet on the floor woke me from my less than stellar sleep. I mumbled tiredly and blinked blearily, my eyes barely focused. A man in a hood crouched in front of my cell, like some sort of ghost. My heart began thumping wildly, my imagination thinking of all sorts of things while my mind was barely awake

"My how the high and mighty have fallen. To see a person with such a sense of so-called 'justice' in jail is quite amusing."

'_You!"__  
_

My mind suddenly shot awake, and I lunged forward out of habit, and managed to smack my face against the cell's bars. I fell backwards and resigned myself to glare up at the man

"Such aggression towards me still. I thought you would've gotten that out when you almost killed me." PoH clicked his tongue in amusement, and flipped back his hood. The hispanic looking pretty boy underneath was not what I was expecting. It threw me off, and I simply stared at the man. He looked back at me with a quirk of an eyebrow. I recovered though, and my anger soon returned full force.

"You killed my girlfriend. " I snarled uncharacteristically back, "Granted she came out okay, but I think that still warrants a little aggression!"

"Yeeeeshhhh..." the man squatted in front of the cell, "Is that any way to treat the man that's going to get you out of here? I seem to remember your manners being a little better last time I observed you."

_'Wait what?'_

* * *

Much more interesting than my original boring plan_  
_

_-Forscythe_


	12. Chapter 12

Talking

_Thinking_

So cool news in SAO. Dubbed SAO is coming to Toonami in July. Looking forward to seeing if it's any good. The VAs I've heard sound good, especially Asuna and Kirito (thankfully). Oh and lastly, there's a poll thingy on my profile involving this story. It'd be cool if you readers would check it out.

Obviously I own SAO. Don't doubt it. ***gets taken away by the internet police***

* * *

Chapter XII: Unlikely Comrades

* * *

"W-what?" I stammered, still not believing the words out of PoH's mouth were the ones I had heard. If he was telling the truth, I would be able to maybe get to Kayaba before the 75th boss raid that was happening that day according to Klein. It had taken a little over two weeks to find the boss room surprisingly. I was scared for my friends. Every 25 floors was one hell of a boss after all.

"I'm getting you out of here. Didn't you understand me the first time?"

"Why?" I asked suspiciously

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." PoH shrugged, "I've moved on from killing people in this game. I was content to wait it out. People like you have made it too dangerous. But then I found out some interesting stuff about Heathcliff. Turns out you did too, judging by you being in prison."

"So you believe I'm guilty?"

"Pff..! A goody two-shoes like you trying to commit murder?" the man laughed uproariously, "I know you'd never do that. Your arrest just confirmed my suspicions about Heathcliff."

"That he's...?"

"Kayaba Akihiko yes."

"So... why do you care if Heathcliff is Kayaba?" I was surprised I could even discuss it. Maybe it was because PoH already knew. Kayaba might not have accounted for that.

"I want to kill him." PoH replied with a slight manic grin, "One last murder. To be honest, his whole trap really pissed me off. I'd like nothing more than to end his life."

I flinched at the blood thirst in his voice. I had almost forgotten how much of a nut he was. Now I remembered.

"Well then... go murder him." I was still confused at PoH's motivation, "What do you need me for?"

"As much as I'd hate to admit it," the man shrugged, "I probably couldn't take him even in an unfair fight. Plus you'll make a good decoy if he decides to pull GM privileges out. Which is what he probably did with you to lock you up in here."

"Makes sense I guess."

"Oh and if you don't let me break you out..." he grinned evily, "I'll make sure your girlfriend stays dead this time."

I flinched at that, and clenched my hands so tight they began to turn white. Lisbeth dieing was not a pleasant memory to remember, and PoH kept bringing it up.

"I wasn't going to say no anyways." I grumbled angrily, "You didn't have to threaten me."

"Oh good!" the man clapped his hand together.

"So. How exactly are you planning on getting me out of here?"

"I found an exploit well over a year ago..." PoH paced around the front of my cell, and seemed to be looking for something, "It should be right around... here!"

PoH began fiddling with something in mid-air. His forehead creased a few times in irritation, before the cell bars seemed to melt away. I gaped at the sight, and sat there frozen on my knees.

"You're going to catch flies." the man smirked, "Now come, I want to kill Kayaba as soon as possible. My blood burns for his."

"Er r-right." I pulled myself to my feet and followed after him, '_He is one sick puppy. I hope I'm right in trusting him. Definitely going to watch my back just in case.'_

Luckily SAO's prisons didn't even have NPC guards. PoH and I were allowed to exit without incident. The sun felt weird on my face once we'd stepped outside. I told PoH that the boss raid was today, so Kayaba was probably there. He nodded, saying he already knew. I followed PoH to the nearby teleport gate, hood shove far over my head. I hoped that no one would come close enough to see my name, or recognize me.

We both stepped in the blue light and spoke the name of the main city on the 75th floor, Collinia. The blue light surrounded us, and we disappeared. The next thing I knew, we were stepping out into Collinia, a city that looked like something out of Rome or Renaissance Italy. I blinked in the bright sun, a bit different from the sun in the floor I had been jailed on. The only time I had actually been to this floor was for Kirito and Kayaba's duel.

"Do you know where they are?" I questioned PoH as we headed out into the dungeon

"No. We'll have to look until we find them." the man kept on walking without pause.

Okay I was definitely having bad thoughts about teaming up with him now. I felt my adrenaline spike at his words. The longer I followed him into the ruins the more my danger sense was going haywire. After all, what better time to kill me or betray than where no one could hear me scream?

I followed my new uncertain party member ever deeper into the ruins, both of us staying nearly completely silent. I began to question mentally PoH's tactics for finding the boss room. Why didn't we just use our tracking skills and find the biggest group of people. It made sense to me. I shrugged it off and kept following him, though I kept my detection skills on high alert. I did not need to be ambushed by Laughing Coffin. PoH wasn't a part of the guild anymore, but he still could have worked with them on the side. It was a common Pking tactic

Deeper and deeper we went, and the air began to grow musty and damp. I wrinkled my nose at some of the smells beginning to come out of the walls around us. This was one of the nastier floors for sure.

Suddenly, PoH began to chuckle grimly, and a chill ran up my spine. The next thing I knew, he had left the party, and was now grinning menacingly

"Well its been fun, but I'm afraid I've been mostly lieing to you. If you could lay over and die now; I would appreciate the gesture."

"W-why!?" I asked, "Why do this now? Why not just let me rot in prison?"

"I need your claws." PoH replied, "With those I will be unstoppable to kill Kayaba."

"H-hey." I slowly backed away from PoH, "You can't be serious about this."

"Oh I am, believe me." PoH took a few steps closer, his cleaver materializing in his hands

I had been wary of PoH's offer to work together, but I never expected him to turn on me just for the sake of killing me and taking my claws. I expected him to use me as a scapegoat for Kayaba while he got the kill. I took several more steps back and equipped the very same claws that PoH wanted to pry out of my dead hands. There was no way I was going to die here. Not after two years of survival. Not when so many people would be distraught over my death. I clenched my fists tighter and got into a crouch.

"Good... .good." the man laughed, "Let us fight to the death!"

He lunged forward with a maniacal laugh, his cleaver in hand. I ducked under it and shoved my shoulder into his chest, surprised at the ease at which I did it. The hit sent PoH stumbling back, my own surprise reflected on his face. We then began circling each other, daring the other to make the next move. PoH was the first to act, lunging forward at me again.

_'Right I didn't use my claws last time we fought, and even then we were on the same level.' _I blocked his sword skill and kicked him in the chest to knock him back again, '_It makes sense that I would have an advantage. Time to finish this then. I've got no time to waste. Every second I waste could mean one of my friends dieing.'_

I dodged another swing, and flash stepped behind him before sliding over into a reave skill. The blow sent him flying back into a tree, groaning in pain. I blinked, still surprised at how easy it had been. I slowly walked up to the downed killer, his health bar slowly sliding down into the red zone. He almost looked like someone I should be pitying. I held up one claw, ready to finish him with another sword skill.

'_What the hell am I doing.' _I let my arm drop to my side, '_I'm no murderer. Even after all he's done, I still can't end his life. Why? WHY? He deserves it. I know he does. Even if I send him to prison, he'll just escape again. He has been off of pking though. I haven't heard of him killing anyone in the past few weeks. Maybe if I leave him be, it'll be fine? Geez I hope I'm making the right decision.'_

"What are you doing." PoH screamed at me, "Finish me!"

I looked down at him, trying my hardest not to do just that. With a grimace, I pulled out a prison crystal and activated it. PoH let out one last tortured scream before vanishing in a veil of blue light.

"Hopefully he'll have the sense to stay there." I rubbed my temples wearily, "If he comes after me again, I'm gonna have to just finish it. Please let him have some sense."

I pulled my cloak tighter and began searching the 75th floor again. Unfortunately, as before, I didn't have any map data, so I was riding blind. All I knew was that people had already headed to the boss room, so I tried to using my tracking skill to detect where previous players had gone. To my relief, a massive group of human footprints appeared to my right, heading deeper into the ruins.

'_Gotta be them.' _I sighed in relief, and followed the glowing tracks.

The 75th floor looked like something out of a history book. The dungeon was made up of sprawling ruins, akin to something from ancient Rome or Greece. I forced myself to ignore my inner history nerd, and ran as fast as I could down the corridors.

The sounds of fighting filled my ears the further I advanced into the ruins. For some strange reason, I hadn't encountered any monsters, but I wasn't complaining. I continued running down hallway after hallway, praying that my friends were all still alive. At long last the hallways widened out into a massive room, with an equally massive closed door. The fighting noises all ceased as I entered, and the door slowly creeped open. To my relief, I could see the massive congratulations banner on the other side.

_'Crap! I need to hide!" _I activated all my stealth related skills and dived into a corner of the shadowy room. I then crept along the wall until I reached the door. I peered inside. No one was looking, so I snuck into the room and hid in the shadows. If I was lucky, no one would have their skills on that would allow them to see me, and even if they did, my stealth related skills were so high that they would be unable to detect me anyway. I snuck up behind Heathcliff, and prepared to try and attack him. If I was right, he was currently an immortal object, and hitting him would reveal his status to the entire group of players here. One of the things I had always noticed was that his health never dropped into the yellow zone, and it was currently on the verge of getting there.

'_Alright...' _I lunged forward, shifting into a flash step, my claws blazing with the purple light of my skill, _'Time to reveal your true colors!'_

* * *

As far as I could tell, the 75th floor is a lot like ancient Italy, so I based it off that. I know the town looks like Rome. Also no Skull Reaper fight. Aurain HAD to come in after it. The only way this was going to work. Cliffhanger and such. I'm sure most people are wondering how exactly the big reveal is going to work out with Aurain forcibly shoving himself into the equation, whether Kayaba likes it or not. Also I'm announcing something that's going to be out in a few weeks. Going to start up a separate fic of all side stories from this universe. It'll be stuff that didn't really fit in with the story, or things I thought of that couldn't be stuck in at the point I'm at in the story. Eventually it'll probably be stuff from ALO if I decide to continue into ALO. Still not 100% on that.

-Forscythe


	13. Chapter 13

**Japanese**

English

(This is just for this chapter until all the English gets out of the way.)

* * *

Chapter XIII: Waking to Reality

* * *

A bright light filled my vision. I groaned and shielded my eyes. A plastic visor met my hands intead of my face. I began laughing hoarsely with pure joy. I stripped the helmet off my head painfully. My arms were not responding like they did in game. They felt like limp noodles. I wiped my unusually long hair out of my eyes to take in the room. A man in a black suit was leaning up against the door frame watching me carefully. We stared at each for a while before the man began walking towards me.

"Hello Ryan Kennedy." the man in the black suit took a seat on the edge of my hospital bed, "I'm from the CIA and I'd like to discuss a few things with you."

"**The CIA**?" I croaked, my unused vocal cords having a hard time forming any kind of sentence, "**I haven't done a-anything wrong have I**?"

The man looked a little off-put, "In English please? I'm only partially fluent in Japanese."

"A-ah." I switched over to english. It felt weird speaking English after speaking Japanese for years in a virtual world. I was just glad I remembered how to be honest, "Right, I'll ask again. I haven't done anything wrong have I?"

"Well you have done something wrong, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. We're looking past that. I'm here to offer you a job."

"A job...?" I was skeptical, "the CIA doesn't hire sixteen year olds."

"You happen to be... special." the man leaned forward on clasped hands, "You are after all the only American citizen to have experienced Sword Art Online. I'm going to just come out and say it. We want you to head over to Japan and enter the most popular VRMMO right now. There's been reports of suspicious activity, and we'd rather not have some sort of cyberterrorism threat on our hands. We don't need another SAO."

"Er... is it really legal to send me over there on government work?"

"We already have permission from the Japanese government," the man laughed a bit, "I don't remember you being so outgoing and inquisitive in your file."

"A lot changes in two years." I replied tiredly, "A whole damn lot. You know what I've done? I've watched someone come back from the dead. I don't think many other people can claim that."

"..." the man just stared at me, "Right... back to the matter at hand. You'll be going through two months of rehab just to get you back on your feet before we ship you off to Japan."

"And my parents are okay with this?"

"Your parents have already been persuaded and have given us the go ahead to proceed. And before you ask, all we did was ask nicely." the man had a wry grin on his face, "Your mother was very stubborn about the situation, while your father saw the entire thing as some sort of learning situation for you."

I snorted and let out a laugh which felt funny in my unused throat, "T-That sounds like them."

"You don't seem terribly sad to be shipped off to Japan so rapidly."

"Nahhh." I closed my eyes, feeling truly relaxed and at peace for the first time in two years, "There was someone I promised I'd come and visit there anyways.

"Well you won't have time for a social visit." the man said sternly, "We want you out of rehab and over in Japan ASAP. Once you're there we want you investigating as much as you can without endangering your health. Here."

The man tossed a passport onto my chest, "Hold onto this. We'll keep in contact. Your parents are coming in now."

The man in black walked smoothly out the door and let in my anxious parents. My mom practically crushed me in a hug, tears rolling down her cheeks. My dad just had a massive grin on his face as he watched the two of us.

"Look like all the video games turned out to be useful after all," He remarked, "The last battle you and your friends had was actually broadcasted on live television."

"Oh wait!" I slapped my forehead, "Dad can I borrow your cellphone real fast!?"

"S-sure." He handed it over to be as my mom finally released her choke hold on me. I quickly went through my NerveGear's interface and found Kirito's number he gave me. I dialed it and waited patiently. I hoped dearly Asuna had made it out alive somehow.

**"****Hello?"** a young female japanese girl answered, **"Kazuto Kirigaya's phone. This is his sister"**

**"**_Kirito has a sister? Huh. __**Ah y-yeah, Is Kazuto there?"**_I asked

"**Who is this**_**?" **_She replied suspiciously.

I heard Kirito's voice, "**Just give me the phone Sugu. It's probably a friend."**

**"But Oni-chan it sounds like an American."**

**"All the more reason to hand it over." **I heard some shuffling, "**Hello?"**

**"It's me." **I sighed in relief, **"I called to... ask about Asuna."**

**"Well..." **I could hear Kirito sighing deeply, "**The good news is she's alive."**

A wave of relief went through my body, **"The bad news?"**

"**She won't wake up."** Kirito responded sadly, **"The doctors don't know what's wrong."**

My heart thudded in my chest. Somehow deep down I knew whatever was wrong with Asuna had to do with the mission the FBI was assigning me to. I sighed deeply before replying.

"**Listen Kirito." **I said, "**I'm gonna be in Japan in a few weeks."**

"**Really!?" **Kirito practically shouted, "**How'd you get permission to come over so fast?"**

"**My parents are pretty reasonable."** I lied, "**Anyways, once I get over there I'll help you figure this out together."**

"**If you've got time in between visits to Lisbeth," **Kirito teased, "**I'll see you soon then."**

**"Yeah." **I replied, "**I'll talk to you then. Call me if anything comes up."**

"**Got it. Bye."** I heard Kirito hang up, and I handed my dad his phone back.

"Who was that?" He asked curiously, "Somebody from the game?"

"A friend I made in there." I leaned back into the pillows, "I had to ask him about on of our other friends we thought died."

"Thought?"

"She's alive." I felt some tears forming in my eyes, "Comatose, but alive."

"That's good." My dad patted me on the shoulder before taking a seat, "It's never good to lose a friend. We've got some catching up to do young man. Especially before you head off without us."

"R-right." I nodded

"So." My dad's face morphed into a massive, familiar grin, "Meet any cute girls in game? I heard the game made it so your features were all the same as the real world."

I felt my face turn bright red before I muttered quietly, "A-actually yeah."

"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow and my mom giggled, "Anything to share."

"N-nothing like that!" I waved my hands in front of my face, "We were just going out is all. We only ever got to kissing! S-sheesh"

"Kissing?" My mother raised an eyebrow, "This girl must be something special to get you to actually pursue her."

"W-well" I scratched the back of my head, "That's a pretty long story actually. I used to be terrified of her to be honest."

"Oh this I want to hear." My dad leaned back in his chair and wrapped an arm around my mom's shoulder, "Please go on."

I nodded and began to relate all the events of the last few months. I did leave out some of the nastier details like when I was getting burned by spider acid, but most of the story was intact.

"Aww..." My mom practically had stars in her eyes by the end of it, "I must visit you while you're in Japan to see her. She sounds like such a nice girl."

"Yeah." I replied, "Sucks that she lives in Japan."

"Long distance relationships are tough," My dad nodded, "But you're going over there soon anyways for that government mission. Besides, I heard rumors of some rehab school for the players of the game you were in. You all did miss a lot of school. I would hate for you to have to go to freshman year of highschool with people two years younger than you."

"You'd be okay with me living in Japan until my twenties?" I raised an eyebrow

"We'd probably learn Japanese and get temporary visas to live with you." My dad raised an eyebrow, "Really I've always wanted to travel to another country. Besides, my company offered me a job over there a while back. It might even still be available."

I forced my screaming body to lean up and give my dad the tightest hug I could. He chuckled and returned the embrace.

"Thanks dad."

* * *

Rehab came and went. I was in decent form by the end of the two months. While my muscles had atrophied, my mind had been moving my limbs for the entirety of the last two years. As a result once my muscles began cooperating I was able to move like a normal person again. The agent assigned to me was surprised at my quick recovery and complimented me on it.

I yawned tiredly.

"_For what reason did this flight have to be at three in the morning?" _I thought sourly, "_Oh right. Timezones. I'm just glad this is a private goverment jet so I can sleep in peace"_

My flight would have me landing in Japan at roughly ten A.M. their time. I shoved my fleece hat further down on my head and zipped up my fleece jacket all the way to the top. For some reason the plane felt even colder than the outside air, even after it had taken off. I smiled down at the smart phone my dad had decided to give me as a sending off gift. My reason for smiling was the email Lisbeth had sent. She had felt the need to send me a message about some delicious cheescake she had found in a local bakery, wishing she could share it with me.

"_If only she knew."_ I softly laughed to myself, "_That I'm only about twelve hours out from her."_

My phone beeped again.

"_Another message?" _I peered down at the dimly lit screen, "_From Kirito?"_

It read: "You're getting here tomorrow right? I've got something I could really use some help with regarding Asuna. I'd ask Agil or Klein, but they're both busy working and I don't want to bother them. I hope you brought your NerveGear."

I sent a message back to him confirming that I was indeed arriving the next day.

_"Aw screw it." _I shook my head, "_I'll just call him and explain the situation."_

"Hello?" Kirito answered, sounding a bit tired, "You didn't have to call me back Aurain, a text back would've been fine."

"Is this about ALO?" I got to the point quickly, "The reason you were asking about my NerveGear?"

"Y-yeah." Kirito sounded surprised, "Do you know about it?"

"Mhmm." I hummed in response, "That's actually the reason I'm coming over to Japan in the first place. I'd explain more, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to."

"Or you'll have to kill me? Kirito teased, and I could here the grin in his voice, "Don't worry about it. What matters is that you're coming to help Asuna. I know you wouldn't harm either of us."

"Thanks Kirito." I sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"Oh one last thing before you go." Kirito hurriedly replied, "It'd probably be best if you called me Kazuto around my family. And honestly, if we're going to get to know each other in real life, it's probably better in general if we call each other by our real names."

"Alright Kazuto." I chuckled, "See ya."

"See you soon Ryan."

I hung up my mobile and closed my eyes. I was hoping for some shuteye before I got to Japan. Jetlag was gonna suck.

* * *

So I am going to explain what exactly happened at the end of the game. Don't worry =P. I just decided to be mean and leave it up to your imaginations for now. It will be told relatively soon, but I'm trying out some inventive storytelling. Mixing it up a little. Oh and one last thing. Thank you mister solitary reviewer. Much love. (also this is the last chapter to vote on that poll.)

-Forscythe


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